From Rookie to Hero
by ChocolateZombie
Summary: Full summery inside. Go read it. Please? Chapter 15 is FINALLY HERE!
1. The First Mission

**Hey, guys, Mr. Chocolate here, with my real first story! Here's the scoop: what if Keira had made a second rift rider during Jak II and her, Jak, Daxter, and Samos used it to go back in the past? Who would take his place? Well, enter Justin, a Rookie FG soldier with a bad attitude (literally). This guy's life is about to become one he'll never forget once he's thrown into the battlefield. Don't worry, though, all the rest of the Jak cast will still be in their places, but I'm debating weather I should do something with Damas. Anyway, on with the story!**

**From Rookie to Hero**

Chapter 1: The first Mission

The breeze of another cold, windy morning in Haven City was felt through an open window in the infamous Freedom Guard HQ, as a tall lieutenant in the FG's signature armor had arrived at a small room, opening the door to reveal several rookie soldiers passed out in their bunks. He turned on the light to the room, showing that, like most other quarters, it was a mess, littered with clothes and other accessories everywhere. The guard took a small metal whistle from his pocket, put it up to his mouth, and...**_TWEET!_**

At first, no one woke up, but, after a second blow, everyone was suddenly jolted awake, screaming like lunatics. "Agh, god damn it," one screamed. "Ugh, what the hell," another screamed.

"Get up, sissies, it's work time, let's go," the guard from the window yelled frantically, as all the soldiers got down or up from their bunks, and began suiting up for the next work day, note, lazily. However, amongst all this confusion and yelling, one soldier in particular was still dead asleep in his top bunker at the back of the room. He was short, at least for FG standards, 20 years old, had short, spiked black hair, and was pretty strong for his age. The only drawback, he had the worst reputation in FG history. His long list pretty much consisted of failure to follow orders, disorderly conduct, dress code violations, and intentional friendly fire (in other words, he shot his own comrades because he wanted to, mostly if they were pissing him off). The guard at the door slapped his forehead and walked over to his bunk and whispered in his ear.

"Justin...Justin..." he said, the rookie still asleep. The guard now screamed bluntly into Justin's ear, "BLOODY HELL, JUSTIN, GET YOUR ASS OUT OF THIS BED RIGHT NOW AND SUIT UP!" Justin opened his eyes for a bit, looked over at the guard, who looked like his head was about to explode, and closed his eyes for a second before sitting up, still barely awake. "For precursor's sake, Justin, what are we going to do with you," the guard said before turning and walking away. Justin mumbled an insult under his breath and looked at the clock, which read 5:00 am. Justin rubbed his crystal blue eyes and got out of bed and sighed. "_Why the hell do these guys have to get us up so early," _he thought.

Justin was never a person to get out of bed at this time of day. Back at home, he always slept in until 10 am, and no one screamed anything in his face before; well, not on accident. When his mom, dad, or younger sister went off on him, there was definitely a reason for doing so. Like in the FG, he never listened to anyone at home, and spent most of his days in his room on his computer, watching TV, or sleeping. The only time he came downstairs was to eat, or go outside and relax. His parents and sister were sick of his behavior, so they had one day asked him to join the Freedom guard. He had actually accepted, because he was getting tired of his image as well.

Unfortunately, he had been in the Freedom Guard for a month, and his attitude hadn't changed much. He was listening to others better, but he was mostly a loner. Most of the guards never paid any attention to him, but he did have a few people who knew him well enough to trust him. He also never was a person to wear a uniform. He hadn't really taking a liking to the FG armor, and occasionally wore standard street clothes, even showing up to work in them.

Never the less, he finally got the heavy armor on and waltzed downstairs to the lounge room, where several guards were minding their own business, which included talking, arm wrestling, drinking, laughing, etc. Justin casually walked over to the coffee dispenser machine and got himself a glass, and sat down at a separated table in the back of the room, where he usually was. He was also never the talkative or conversational types, really just sat somewhere and listened to whatever random crap someone had to say.

Like any boy his age, though, Justin had a weakness for girls. There weren't a lot of women in the FG, but those who were there he definitely had tried to hit on. At first, they actually talked to him. He tried to lie about himself as best as he could, but sooner of later he said something that gave himself away. However, there was one girl in the FG who actually liked Justin's attitude and his personality. Her name was Robin, a spunky red and black haired semi-goth girl, semi meaning that she didn't always look like one. They had different armor designs for the girls in the guard, and you really couldn't see the difference between them. Robin, like Justin, never did like the armor, but she was a lot more obedient then he was. She had the hots for him a little, but frankly, Justin couldn't care less that a girl was after him. Like I said, he doesn't like talking, he's really the silent type; but that didn't stop him from trying.

Justin took off his helmet and slugged down his drink, unaware that someone was coming up behind him. He put his head on the table and in his arms and suddenly heard the chair beside him slide out and back, and felt an arm around his shoulders. He looked up briefly and, sure enough, it was Robin. She too, and taken her helmet off, revealing her smooth, reflective pale skin, her red and black hair tied in a ponytail behind her head, her earrings and piercings along her ears, her sexy green eyes, red lips, shapely body, and most importantly, her smile. Justin just couldn't resist her smile; she was a beautiful person, he couldn't hide that. He smiled a little and said, "Hey, Robin."

Robin smiled, and did what she always did to comfort someone, sliding her chair closer to him and snuggling her head into his arms. "still at the bottom of the pit, huh," she whispered. Justin simply nodded, although you really couldn't tell. She had now gotten him to sit up, and wrapped her other arm around the front of his chest and snuggled her head in his shoulder and sighed. _"I can't understand why she would like me," _Justin thought. _"Then again, I cant understand why I like her."_ He looked briefly over to his left to see her quietly holding him, her eyes closed at the moment, which made Justin smile more than normal. "_Why is she so cute when she's like this," _He thought sarcastically, rubbing Robin's back softly. She opened her eyes again, just as another guard was walking past. He recognized both Robin and Justin, and laughed quietly. "What are you doing hanging out with that loser, Robin," he said silently, referring to Robin, though somehow Justin had managed to here him, walking over to him.

"You got a problem with me," Justin said heartlessly, as Robin watched from her seat with a look of caring on her face. "Who, me," he responded, acting like he was innocent."of course not. The fact that a super hot babe is hitting on a total asshole like you is none of my business."

"For your information, she actually likes my attitude, so I suggest you take back what you just said," Justin yelled back, standing like he wanted a fight..

"Go ahead can try to beat the living hell out of me, but that will only lead to you adding on to your long list of demerits, and another person stronger than you beating you up, too," The guard said back. "We'll just see about that," Justin said, as he began to ball up his fist, ready to swing. "Bring it," the guard yelled. Just as they were about to strike however, the alert siren went off, and the two settled down. "Lucky save," Justin spat as he walked over to Robin, took her hand in his and walked out the lounge door to the main room. The guard muttered something under his breath and walked away, too.

"What was that about," Robin asked bluntly.

"He made me mad, that's all, I don't like it when people criticize my relationships," he said, but realized what he had just said and looked over to see Robin blushing slightly and smiling.

"What?"

"You like me, don't you," Robin asked cheerfully.

"As a friend, yes. As a girlfriend, I'm not ready for that yet," he responded, as Robin gave him an 'are you sure' look, which he just shook off.

A few minutes later, Justin and several guards were all gathered in the main mission room (where you go in the FG in Jak 3), where none other than Mr. Pain-in-the-ass Torn was standing in front of a large hologram table (the table thing in the middle of the room).

"Everyone, we've got a big one on our hands this time," he said. "Our sources have found a way to cripple the Metal Head's operations here in the city. How, you ask: well, my second-in-command here, Carter, will fill you in on the details," he finished, before a man slightly shorter than him stood at the same position.

"Thanks, Torn. Ok, guys, I'll be your head honcho on this mission. Here's the plan: the teams I announce after this briefing will go in an air-train to the Metal Head nest entrance in the west side of the city, in the gardens. Fight your way through the nest and meet me in the main tower for further instructions. Alpha, Bravo, and Delta teams will be going, so everyone head out. Dismissed!" The guards all saluted and left. Justin smirked slightly, as he had not seen any action since her joined the guard, over a month ago. He had just been put into delta squad a few days ago.

"Good luck," Robin said, and gave him a small kiss on the cheek and walked off, since she wasn't on one of the teams announced. She did office work mainly.

Justin had been on the air train for ten minutes when they finally arrived at the entrance to the tower. Everyone scrambled to get a weapon and took their positions outside. Justin was at the very back and when he finally got there, there were no more guns. "_Yay, no weapons. How am I supposed to fight now," _he thought to himself. His sarcasm didn't last long, because a guard spotted him and went up to him. "Well, this is a sad scene. A rookie with no weapon is like a bar without drinks. Here, I got an extra one you can keep it." He tossed Justin a weapon which looked nothing like the standard FG rifles he practiced with. It was a lot more compact, sleek, and had a red disc on the top. "It's called a scatter gun," the guard yelled. "Works just like a shotgun." However, it didn't take long for Justin to try out his new toy, as a pack of metal heads had breached the defenses and were rushing straight towards him. Justin closed his eyes, pulled the trigger, and...**BLAM! **He could really feel the kickback as he heard a lot of blood curdling screams, and opened his eyes to see the pack of Metal Heads that had just attacked him sprawled across the ground, each with some form of limb missing or damaged, and bleeding to death.

"Holy..." Justin said to himself, then suddenly smiled evilly as he stroked the scatter gun like it was a cat. The rest of the area was easy, as the gun took out the Metal Heads with one blow. Justin soon arrived to the very top of the tower, to meet Carter and 2 other guards with him. "Hey, Mr. Troublemaker, I see you finally decided to get on our good side for once. You really kicked ass with that thing," he remarked. "Ok, now that everyone's here, I'll explain the battle plan. There are four critical support beams around here that need to be destroyed if we want to blow the base. We're standing next to one right now," he said, referring to the beam behind him. "I have this one covered. Each of you is to take another beam littered around the top here. They've all been preset to one minute until detonation, so you need to find where to put it and then hall out before it blows. One minute may seem like enough time, but with four parts, it's not very much. Justin, I want you to take the one directly north of here. Ron, take the east and Anthony, take the west. No sightseeing, now move!"

The guards all saluted and went to place the charges. Everything worked out well, except for Justin who had the heaviest resistance and was only able to get there with about five seconds left. As the air train left the tower, the guards watched in celebration as the tower suddenly blew up and collapsed to the ground. There was cheering and congrats aplenty, as the guard Justin met earlier came up and sat next to him on a bench. "That was some good fighting, eh Rookie? Looks like you can handle that thing pretty well. Here, I got this for you," he said and tossed a mod of some sort to Justin. "It's a rate of fire upgrade for the scatter gun. You know how much time it took to reload each shot before? Well, this thing will cut that time down almost 75. You deserve it."

Justin easily thanked the guard as the air train descended back into the hangar. Justin entered the lounge where he saw Robin sitting in a corner by herself just daydreaming. "Hey, I'm back," Justin yelled to her, and was immediately met by Robin jumping out of her seat and throwing herself at Justin, kissing him. "Uh...I..." she mumbled, releasing him. "I got a new toy," he said, and took out his scatter gun. She held it in her hands and liked how it felt. "It's so comfortable," she said. "But promise me you won't get into a fight with this thing." "I won't, I'll just use it to fight Metal Heads." She gave it back to him, hugging him one last time before walking off, not knowing Justin's gaze had been drifting downward...

**Yeah, some dirty humor there at the end. I actually struggled a bit with Justin's character development. I originally had him as an ordinary guard, but then decided to give him an edge and made him the troublemaker he is in the story. Another note is that all the missions for Jak 3 will be starting from the missile thing and go until the mission where you have to protect the FG headquarters for the first time and after that I'll be tweaking it a little. But, enough of my ranting, review!**


	2. Trapped In the Port

Chapter 2: Trapped in the Port

It was only Justin's second day of action, and he was already in a hole. Veger, the city council chairmen, had sent him, Carter, and a bunch of other guards into the port on a suicide mission. Now they're stuck in the port with no way to get back to FG headquarters.

(Flash)

"Are you insane?! We can't go down there, we'd be signing our own death warrant," Torn spat at the council leader.

"Please, Torn, what I mean is that you don't have to go, just everyone who volunteers to go," Veger said back casually.

"No one's going to be stupid enough to go through wave after wave of KG death bots," Torn yelled back.

"You know as well as I do that I have more power over the FG than you do, and when I make a direct order, it must be carried out, or the commander will face dire consequences, AND THIS IS A DIRECT ORDER!" Veger spat back.

"Yes, but the Governess has more power over both of us and she can overrule you in a heartbeat," Torn spat.

"Ashelin may be able to do that, if she hadn't already agreed to this also," Veger responded calmly.

"What!"

"Yes, I was able to 'convince' that 'well gifted' governess of yours to get on my side, so you now have no choice."

"Earrgh, fine, I'll do it, but you're to blame if we get killed, or get stuck."

"Now that's more like it," Veger said calmly.

A few hours later Justin was sitting in the lounge room with a cup of pop in his hands with his little friend Robin and a few of her other girl friends (not literally), talking about Justin's first battle experience, and laughing at best.

"So, Justin, what happened next," asked a blond girl on the floor. "Well, we were ready to blow the tower. I had placed my charge after battling through hoards of Metal Heads. I was running back, an army of the damn things chasing me, doing my best to fend them off, and I had just barely made it with only 5 seconds left on the clock. We watched from the back of the train as the Tower blew sky high and collapsed to the ground," he said, when suddenly his communicator beeped. "Justin here," he said, as a very stern Torn spoke on the other line. "Justin, I need you in the mission room now, we got a big one."

"Be right there," he said. "I gotta go, ladies."

The group said their goodbyes as Justin headed for the Mission room.

A few minutes later, Justin, Carter, and a few other soldiers were all waiting in the briefing room for another mission when the ever-so-busy Torn and the city Governess, Ashelin, appeared in the room. "Guys, we got another one. Apparently, Mr. cork-in-the-ass Veger wants us to go down into the port and support some of our other squadrons down there," Torn said.

"He's crazy! We'll get cut off, or worse, killed," one of the guards yelled.

"Yes, but it was a direct order, and rules say that if I disobey a direct order from the council head, I could lose my job," Torn replied.

"But, the governess could..." another guard started but Ashelin herself interrupted.

"I already agreed with Veger on this one, so you have to do this," she said.

"Oh, OK, then, what do we do," he asked.

"What we were told to do, go down there and help the south patrols."

"Yes, sir!" everyone yelled, and marched out to the cruisers to head down.

Justin was heading out when Robin came up behind him and grabbed him. "Hey, where are you headed off to? You never finished your story," she said. "I gotta go do some defense work in the port, but I'll be back," Justin said, as Robin looked a little worried. "be careful," she said, and kissed him before heading off. "I will," he said softly, and went outside and, being the thinker that he was, just stole a regular zoomer and sped off.

(end flash)

Justin wondered why he even bothered to sign up for this. They had lost a lot of men in the port since they arrived, and were getting mowed down by the minute. Fortunately, after a few days, they had managed to keep the bots and Metal Heads from reaching the main part of the city. Since the palace was destroyed somehow, there wasn't a lot of places to explore. They decided to make their temporary south HQ inside the Naughty Otsel, formerly known as the Hip hog Saloon.

The Next few days were going slow. The KG had installed barriers from preventing Justin and the others from reaching the slums and most of south town. One things for sure, they needed to find a way back to FG headquarters fast, or they'd be done for. As much as Justin hated to admit it, he wanted to get back. Not just to see home again, but, yes, he missed Robin. She had heard of the incident on the news and was really worried that he might be dead. He just prayed to the precursors to send her a sign that they were all right.

The next day, Justin was called to the bar for a new mission.

"Justin, we think we've found a way to destroy one of the KG barriers," Carter said. "We developed a highly explosive eco rocket, that has been programed to be flown toward the barrier and explode on impact. We need you to go out and used the rocket's remote to collect all the eco charges around the port, and then drive it to the barrier. Hopefully the thing has enough explosives in it to blow the barrier."

"No problem," Justin said.

Sure, getting the first few was easy, but the rest were hard to get, as he had to constantly weave around cars and walls, as one crash would destroy the rocket. Finally, he collected the last charge, and, as promised, the barrier blew into pieces as the rocket collided with it.

"Nice job, Justin. We'll try to figure out another way in. If you want a reward, there's a blaster mod in the gun room for you. You can even try out your skills in the course if you want," Carter said over the radio.

Justin headed over to the gun room, and sure enough, he found a mod in a crate in the middle of the room. He then looked over to a door that was labeled "course entrance". Justin equipped the new mod and went in, where he blew away the high score easily.

As he started a victory dance, his communicator beeped, signaling that he was needed in the Naughty Otsel.

"_Maybe I'll get to use this on the battlefield now," _Justin thought, as he made his way to the bar.

As he entered the door, he saw carter browsing over a map of the city.

"Justin, I think I've found a way to get to HQ. There's an underground route through the sewers. It may get us back, so I want you to go down and scout it out and follow the path to the end. Hopefully, It goes to the water district."

"Yay, sewers. dark, dirty, and dangerous; my kind of place." Justin said, grinning.

"The entrance should be in the industrial section, a little ways past the first barrier that we destroyed," Carter said.

"I'll find it," Justin remarked, as he headed out the door and grabbed a nearby zoomer and sped to the industrial section. He looked around and then saw a big dip in the pavement, and saw a door at the end.

"That must be it," Justin said to himself, and dismounted the zoomer and went in, and stepped on a lift which took him into the sewers.

As he exited the door, he had to plug his nose to get rid of the horrible smell.

"_Ugh, this place smells like shit," _he thought. "B_ut, it's a sewer, so I gotta get used to it." _

Justin turned left to see a series of 3 pipes spitting out green gas.

"_Looks dangerous. Shouldn't get on the pipes while that green smoke is coming out of it."_

He carefully studied the pipes, figuring out the patterns and moved from pipe to pipe, anticipating when each one would turn on again. He got to the floor on the other side and saw another door. He approached it and walked through it as it unlocked to see a few KG bots standing around. He pulled out the scatter gun and went for the bots. Surprisingly enough, it took a lot of hits to destroy the bots, as he realized the scatter gun wouldn't work very well down here. Then he remembered the blaster mod he had, and equipped it, and looked around the corner to see a few bots in the distance. He aimed the blaster at one of them, thankful for himself that the blaster had a laser sighting, and pulled of about 3 shots and the bot was destroyed.

"_Sweet, this thing's got some good strength," _Justin thought and continued shooting the far away bots, until they were destroyed. He came up to yet another series of pipes, and with some timing, got up to the other platform and made his way to a hovering platform with a few hovering bots around it. He took out the bots and hopped on the platform, which started moving toward the other side. He then noticed a sweeping blue electric beam sweeping across the pit, as well as more hover bots appearing. He quickly took out the KG bots, being careful not to get shocked by the beam. Once he was on the other side, he continued until he reached what looked like a pit. As soon as he went in the room, a shock field activated and several hover guards started pouring out from the pit.

Suddenly, he noticed something in a corner and picked it up. Writing on the side in precursian said "Beam reflexor mod". He equipped it, and it was just the blaster with some fancy thing attached to it.

"_Piece of crap," _Justing thought, and fired it, and somehow the shot bounced off of the bot and continued bouncing off of the other bots until they were all gone and a forcefield to the right deactivated.

"Not a piece of crap,"Justin said to himself, as he continued through the deactivated gate, until a bunch of smaller bots spawned out of nowhere. He switched back to blaster, and, surprisingly, they only took one hit to kill. He then switched to the scatter gun and easily took all of them out with one hit. As soon as they were all gone, the other forcefield deactivated and he walked through to another moving platform, which now had a machine gun at the other end sweeping back and forth. He carefully dodged each stream until he got to the end and jumped down to a platform surrounded by water, in which metal heads started coming out of pipes directly across from the platform. Justin switched to the blaster again and took out the metal heads, and once it was clear, looked for a way around. He noticed the platform continued to his right, but a fence cut them off. However, the bottom of the fence only touched the water, so Justin could easily swim under it, which is what he did. Next he saw a pressure plate on the floor, which he stomped on to open another passageway to the next area, but also releasing more metal heads. He took them out with the blaster, then crossed into a fenced off box shape room with 2 huge bots with sharp propellers on their arms in each section. He dove into the water to avoid them, crossed over a few sections, and found himself in some cage with another pressure plate. He stomped on it, and heard something in the background open. He retraced his steps to the outer box, and saw a clear pathway in the distance with a platform underneath it. He got on the platform, jumped into the room, and walked a few more feet before he came to the exit. As Justin stepped on the lift, though, he felt that something wasn't right.

Turns out he was right, because once he exited the lift, he found himself not at HQ, but at the end of the Metal Head garden in the city. "Carter," Justin said into his communicator, "I figured out where that sewer route led."

"Where; hopefully back to HQ, right," Carter asked.

"Uh, no, actually, I'm at the end of the Metal Head garden," Justin said calmly.

"Well, looks like you're going to have to fight your way out of there on foot," Carter replied. "and since you're in the area, I want you to go to Haven Forest and hunt a few scout metal heads. Their looking for something there but I have no idea what."

"Got it," he responded and began walking. Justin slowly made his way out of the nest, taking out any Metal Heads in his way, and finally reached the end after about 30 minutes. He then stole a zoomer and headed toward the forest entrance, parking before the ramp.

As he entered the forest, he noticed that nothing was there, just a lot of trees, rocks, grass, and a big lake in the middle with several rivers running off of it. He equipped his proximity radar and began exploring. He had only taken a few steps when suddenly his radar had detected movement directly to his left. He aimed his gun and fired left, and somehow the bullet connected with something in midair, as electricity crackled where the bullet hit to reveal a cloaked Metal Head, coming straight at him. He shot it again, killing it. Justin expanded his radar to reveal several other blips in the area.

"_This is gonna be a challenge," _Justin thought.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After fighting 29 more of the scouts, Justin was about to leave when he noticed the ground rumbling and the lake bubbling, like something was down there. He went to the edge of the lake, where he discovered 5 small circular platforms lining a larger one. He stepped on them and went to the center, where he found nothing. He then got off, but when he got to shore, the ground started rumbling again, but a lot more intense, as the center platform shot up about 30 feet in the air, and each individual platform shot up one by one, forming stairs of some sort. He got onto the lowest pillar, which rose up to level out with the second. He jumped over to the other pillar, and it rose up to level out with the next one, and so on until he was on the center platform, where he heard a strange voice in his head.

"**_Who awakens the great oracle of these pillars,_**" the voice said in an eerie tone. Justin stepped up and raised his hand. There was a moment of silence before the oracle spoke again. "**_You are the disobedient guard everyone's talking about_**," he said. Justin simply shook his head as the oracle continued, "**_You have a gift hidden deep inside of you that can alter your fate completely. The power of darkness hides in your soul, waiting for the exact moment to make itself known._**"

"It's already made itself known," Justin blurted out.

"**_This is not what you've been experiencing, no, it is a stronger darkness, one that can only be brought upon by dark eco,_**" the oracle said.

"But, I haven't..." Justin began, trying to explain that he had never had contact with Dark Eco before, but the Oracle cut him off.

"**_Yes you have. You were only ten, and stumbled upon a dark and light eco crystal in a cave. You touched it and got zapped with the substances._**"

"Are you stalking me or something? Because if you are, you're..." Justin began, but was once again cut off.

"**_I know all, frustrated one._**" it said. "**_Try me._**"

"Ok," Justin said, trying to think of the most obvious question he could. "What color is my underwear," he said.

"**_Brown,_**" the Oracle replied.

"_Damn, it's good," _Justin thought, then realized that if it knew everything, maybe it would know about Robin. "Oracle, do you know of a girl in the FG named Robin? Black and Red hair, sort of goth-type," he asked.

"**_Yes. She is fine. But, she also misses you a lot_**."

"I figured that," Justin said to himself. He then got a dirty idea in his head. "Say, Oracle, what is she wearing underneath that armor?"

"**_Red and Black Tank Top, Dark Navy Blue Jeans, Black socks." _**

"And underneath that," Justin said, slightly seductive.

"**_Black, lacy undergarments." _**The oracle said. Justin finally decided to stop, or else He'd make the Oracle think he was stalking her.

"Uh, that's all. So, how are we supposed to get through to HQ?"

"**_Break all the barriers somehow. If that is all, I will be going now. I will speak to you again when the time is right."_** And with that, the voice left Justin's head.

"_Ok, that was weird. Oh well, best get going." _he thought, when his communicator suddenly went off. "Justin here," he said, as Carter's voice spoke through the other line.

"Justin, we've located 4 critical power boxes that, if destroyed, could lower another one of the barriers. Our blast expert, Jinx, is waiting for you outside. Destroy those boxes, and we'll be one step closer to getting back to our friends."

"Right, we're on it," Justin said and closed the talk box. "_Robin, don't worry, I'm coming back. I promise." _He looked back at the pillars one last time before he exited the forest.


	3. A Way Back Home

Chapter 3: A Way Back Home

As Justin walked out of the forest entrance, he noticed a large, two seater zoomer with what looked like a strong, gangster-like man in his 40's in the passenger's seat.

"_That must be Jinx," _Justin thought, and went down the ramp and instantly caught the disgusting scent of cigarette smoke. Ignoring the feeling in his gut wanting to chuck biscuits, he walked over to the driver's side and got in.

"You Jinx," he asked.

"The one and only," Jinx responded. "So you're the newbie everyone's talkin' bout. I like your style, kid, reminds me of me when I was your age. Oh, what a rebel I was. But, enough about me, you ready to rock and rumble?"

"Oh, yeah," Justin said confidently.

"That's the attitude I want. Let's go, kid."

Justin soon got to the first power box which was right near the entrance to the MH gardens.

"I'll set the charges. You, watch my ass," Jinx ordered, as Justin began to fend off the Metal Heads while Jinx planted the bombs, and in a few seconds he had the first bomb on and the two ran back to the zoomer and drove off as the box exploded.

3 power boxes later, and the last one went up in flames. "Sweet eco, Justin, you did it," Carter's voice said through the talk box.

"Nice one, Rookie! I'm gonna go see what I can scrounge up. See ya on the flip side." and with that, Jinx tossed him a gun mod and drove off. Justin put it on the gun and noticed that the max ammo counter went up by 50.

"Sweet, ammo upgrade," Justin said to himself, as he went back in the direction of the Naughty Otsel, when suddenly his communicator went off. "Yeah," Justin said.

"Justin, it's Torn. We've got word of an eco shipment in the industrial section near the last barrier that is going to an outside area for research. That eco could be of use to us in the war, so I want you to go hijack the vehicle and drive it out to the Naughty Otsel in one piece. Don't loose any of the barrels, understand?"

"Yeah, I got it." he said sarcastically.

After a bit of walking, Justin found the rather large zoomer with several eco tanks in it and hopped in and started the engine. However, he didn't get far until a missile turret a few feet away shot many heat-seeking rockets right in his direction.

"Shit," Justin swore and frantically stepped on the gas and floored it. Not only did he have to avoid getting disintegrated by the missiles, but he also had to get through back to the Port through the twisting Industrial section without hitting a wall, which was rare for him.

"Carter, we've got a problem, I've got heat-seeking missiles on my ass and I can't loose them," Justin screamed into his talk-box.

"I'll have one of the guards set up a few decoys in the harbor. Just hit them with your morph gun to activate them."

"How am I gonna fire and drive at the same time?"

"There's a mount for the gun on the hood. Put it there and then aim it with your controls and push the red buttons on the top of the handlebars to fire," Carter said.

"Got it," Justin replied.

Surprisingly, Justin made it through the rest of the section and the decoys fairly well. However, there was still one more missile on his tail.

"Justin, drive toward the Naughty Otsel! We'll use the bar sign as the last decoy," Carter said.

(At T.N.O.)

"You can make it! Crank that sign up to full brightness," Carter yelled, as a guard in the background turned the brightness on the crude imitation of Daxter up to max, as Justin got within range and quickly pulled up a full 90 degrees just as he was about to hit it, making the missile hit the sign and not him. It blew the head off the manikin which landed on the pitchfork. If Daxter were there, he'd have a nervous breakdown at the sight.

Justin parked the zoomer in front of the Naughty Otsel and headed inside.

"Eco's safe," he told Carter who was looking over a map of some sort.

"Good, Justin, but that's old news now. We've got word of a major scale attack on the port to wipe us out once and for all. The strange thing is, we're seeing movement from both the KG and Metal Head fronts. It's like they're working together. We've got to repel this assault or we're through! I hate to do this to ya, but I'm putting you on the front line. Take this gun mod and stop any KG bots or Metal Heads from reaching this place. If we lose this one, we're history."

Justin equipped the gun mod and read the words "wave concussor" on the side in precursian. He went outside and did a test fire to see a large ring of Red Eco energy shoot out from underneath him.

"Awesome," he said and went to go round up some enemies.

An hour later and Justin had eliminated the last of the forces. It was a real tough battle, and...wait, what am I saying. Justin tore through the bots and Metal heads like a knife through butter. The only reason he took so long is because there were a lot of them. Anyway, after it was eliminated, he got a call to head back to the Naughty Otsel right away.

(at T.N.O.)

"Ok, I'm here, what is it," Justin said, as he saw Jinx and Carter sitting at the bar table.

"Justin, we may have found a way to reach Freedom HQ. Jinx here has an idea," Carter said, as Jinx walked up to the Rookie.

"Hey, Justin, long time, no see," Jinx said in Justin's face patting him on the back. Justin whisked away Jinx's cigarette breath and listened to him drone on. "Listen, I think we've got a boomer of a plan here. You know those nasty blast bots that you've seen around here? Well, I captured one. Don't ask, Ill show ya the scars later. I rigged that baby with a remote control, and even more explosives than the standard package."

"Justin, use the remote control to drive that blast bot towards the barrier and blow it up," Carter ordered.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A few tense minutes later, and Justin had blown up the barrier. He thought that being a blast bot would make it easier, but apparently the other KG bots recognized the one Jinx stole and opened fire on him and yes, it was tough. The hardest part was avoiding the other blast bots who were hard to shake. After turning off the controller, he handed it to Carter with a smile.

"Great Job, Justin, we can link up with the northern front now! I'll get on the Horn to HQ and tell em the good news. You're the man Justin. YOU are the man," Carter said, jumping over the bar table.

Justin smiled, and a few minutes later, he and Carter walked out of the bar, hijacking a nearby zoomer and sped off towards the FG headquarters. "_Hold on, Robin, I'll be there before you know it."_

After a little drive, Justin finally arrived at the entrance to HQ with the zoomer about ready to explode, and proceeded through the door, along with Carter.

(In the mission room)

Robin, Torn, and Ashelin were standing around in the FG command room. They had gotten a call a few minutes ago that Justin and Carter would be on their way. Suddenly, the door slid open, as the two FG soldiers pranced into the room happily.

"Ladies and gentlemen, your dynamic duo has returned," Justin said jokingly. "No autographs, please." Torn and Ashelin frowned at Justin's sense of humor, but Robin couldn't be happier that he was there, and ran up to him and hugged him tightly, almost crushing him. She heard him wince and let go a little.

"Sorry," she said, in which Justin hugged her back, as Robin kissed him (!?) and left.

"Great job out there, you two," Torn said.

"What took you so long to get here," Pecker yelled.

"Sorry, we only had a war in the way," Justin said.

"Well, I'm glad that you both made it back safely," Ashelin said.

The celebration didn't go on for long, as a huge blast shook the tower, the warning alarms sounding throughout the base.

"Uh,oh," Pecker said.

"It looks like a large scale assault! Multiple targets inbound," Ashelin yelled over the warning. "I can't believe I'm doing this, but Justin, get out there and keep this place in one piece. You'll need this," she said, and tossed him a Vulcan Barrel, which turned the gun into the Vulcan Fury, a machine gun.

And, once again, it was actually tough, as the armor on the bots must've been upgraded because it took more than one hit to bring them down. However, something very strange happened when Justin about ¾ of the way done. He blacked out for a second, as his skin grew pale, black horns shot out of his head, his fingernails growing into long claws, and his eye sockets turning completely black. Yes...he was now...**DARK JUSTIN!!!** Dark Justin now pretty much teared through the bots like they were butter, and after a few moments, the army retreated, and Dark Justin fell to the ground, unconscious, and reverted back.

(Several hours later)

"Ugh, my head," Justin said groggily as he got up to realize he had passed out right in front of the FG. He went inside, his head still hurting from whatever happened.

"Guys, what happened," He asked, dazed, as Torn turned to him with a strange look on his face.

"See for yourself," he said, as a battle recording played on one of the computer screens, and as it showed Justin transform into, whatever it was, Justin pretty much fell silent during the whole thing. Robin was silent, too. In fact the entire room was silent for the entire movie as Torn played it again about 3 times, everyone still unsure of what the hell had just happened.

"How do you explain that," Torn said, pointing to the monitor.

"I don't know what happened. I was Just fighting and then I blacked out, and woke up in front of HQ a few minutes ago."

"Maybe you should go get some rest. I'll be lenient and give you the rest of the day off," Torn said, patting him on the back. "Just don't expect anything like this to happen for a long time."

"Thanks, and I hope it won't, either," he said, before heading up to his bedroom, still trying to figure out what had happened.

"Well, this has been a very interesting day," Carter said.

"Let's just hope Veger doesn't find out about this. You now how screwed up that guy is. He thinks that Dark Eco is "evil" and anyone who's able to channel it is "tainted" and "an abomination"," Ashelin said.

"Yeah. Look, it's getting late, let's all go to bed and worry about this in the morning," Torn said, as everyone agreed and went to bed.


	4. Into the Wasteland

From Rookie to Hero

Chapter 4: Into the Wasteland

It had been 3 days since the Dark Justin incident, and already, by no surprise, Veger had found out. Since he was a strong believer in the precursors, Light Eco, and given that he believes Dark Eco is evil, he now had reason to believe that Justin is a danger to the city and must be disposed of. His council, however, disagreed with him, stating that one incident isn't enough to have him exiled. However, it didn't stop him from trying. He ordered a mandatory council meeting for the next day, forcing everyone, including Justin and possibly Robin, to attend, although the two rookies had no idea that the meeting was even being held.

That morning, Justin was woken by the sound of his cabin door being pounded on. Another guard went to answer it, seeing Veger and several higher-ranked soldiers with him.

"I require the presence of the one called "Justin"," Veger said in his usual calm tone, as the guard motioned for the young rookie to come over. He reluctantly agreed, and was met by a cold stare form the Head of the Council.

"What do you want, old man," Justin asked, knowing that Veger was somewhere in his 50's.

"Don't ever call me that again, young man. Now, you are hereby invited to this morning's head council meeting, where we will be discussing this whole business of you turning into a Dark Freak a few days ago."

"I appreciate the offer, Veger, but I don't need anger management classes, and as for the Dark thing, I have absolutely no idea how it happened."

"I'm afraid you don't have a choice. All of your friends will be there, as will your little "girlfriend"," he said, putting an emphasis on the word girlfriend. Justin knew who he was talking about, and blushed slightly. "I already had her sign your name on the "guest" list to save time," Veger continued, raising an eyebrow like he was up to something.

"What did you do to her," Justin spat.

"Nothing; well, maybe a little blackmail, such as the fact that I know all about her childhood background, and I could've told it to everyone, even you," he responded.

"I don't know why you would bother threatening someone by telling them that."

"Well, if she had a very naughty childhood, then would that change your opinion?"

"Maybe, but I'm still not going," Justin said.

"Oh, you will," he said, as a guard behind him pulled out a set of precursor-metal handcuffs. "Come quietly, or else you will be place under arrest for being a danger to this great city and to the people around you."

Not wanting add an arrest onto his long list of offenses, Justin played along with the old man and went with him to the council meeting room. The council room was kind of like a courthouse, only with just a few rows of chairs and a jury stand for the council members, and a booth and desk for the witness, and a few other tables, as well as a few sets of chairs in the middle of the room.

They entered the room, Justin seeing everyone her knew in there, as he went and took a seat next to Torn.

"Justin, you had better not have gotten us in trouble," He said.

"Look, we just explain what we saw, persuade him that everything will be fine, and get out of here," Justin responded, as Veger cleared his throat and began ranting on.

"Ladies and gentlemen of the city council, I have called you here today because we have a pressing matter on our hands that could be a potential danger to this great city and its equally great citizens. Now, I'm sure you're all aware of a certain "mishap" at the FG headquarters a few days ago. We have a number of witnesses of this incident with us here today. First, I would like to call to the stand the commander of the Freedom Guard, Mr. Torn."

Torn reluctantly walked up and sat in the witness chair, as Veger came over to rant on again.

"Now, tell me, Torn, you're the commander of our great defense force for this city, am I correct?"

"Yes," Torn said.

"You were there on the day that one of your soldiers had turned into this so called "monster", right?"

"Yep."

"Now, tell me about Justin's behavior in the Guard since he joined."

"Well, he was very cocky, didn't listen to any of us that well, always got in fights, shot his own allies intentionally, the list goes on."

"And could this have any connection to his ability to be gifted with Dark Eco?"

"Whoa, hold on, old timer," Justin blurted out from the stands. "Er, I mean, OBJECTION!"

"Pipe down, dark boy, the adults are talking," Veger spat, as Justin looked at him with a puzzled expression. "Don't worry, you'll get your turn soon."

"As much as I hate to say this, Justin's right. I have no record about him that says he's been channeling Dark Eco, and I don't think it has anything to do with his behavior."

"Oh, really? Ladies and gentlemen, may I present exhibit A," Veger said, pointing to a projector, in which everyone looked at him with a strange expression, like he was crazy.

"What's a projector got to do with this," Ashelin asked.

"It's what's in the projector, governess," Veger responded, and clicked the button in his hand that brought up a picture of a small black-haired boy in a cave.

"Exhibit A. A ten-year old Justin was exploring a cave one day, when he found this," he continued, clicking the projector button again to go to a picture of the same boy picking up something. "A Dark Eco Crystal. The result was his body being infused with the substance, and therefore tainted for the rest of his life," he finished, clicking through the rest of the pictures.

"Hey, wait a minute," Justin blurted out again. "Where'd you get those pictures, anyway?"

"Oh, I have my sources," Veger said (Shows flashback where a few council members buying old pictures of Justin from his mom off of E-bay).

"And there was a Light Eco Crystal in there, too, you know," Justin said again.

"But you haven't shown any proof of that," Veger retaliated.

A few more witnesses later, and Justin himself was called to the stand.

"Let's keep this quick, dude, I'm getting hungry," he said.

"Excuse me," Veger said in an exaggerated tone. "Now, Justin, how old are you now?"

"20, but what's my age have to do with this?"

"Because you're at the age where you can be tried as an adult. Now, what's your behavior been like in your life before and after the day you found the crystal in that cave," Veger asked.

"Not that different, really, I've always been a rebel, but I had been known to get angry a bit easier that before I found it."

"Ah, the first sign of the effects of Dark Eco, easily angered or distressed. This would have been easily identifiable. Did you ever tell your parents about this?"

"No."

"Then there is only ONE logical explanation for this...Justin is a double agent working with the metal heads to undermine the war," Veger spat, as several gasps were heard.

"What?! I hate the metal heads! What in your mind makes you think I'd be working with them?"

"Ah, so you say! Exhibit B! 11 year old Justin's birthday party. I was supposed to be the party planner, but you replaced me at the last minute! Why? So I wouldn't discover your secret underground communication system for reporting back to the Metal Head leader," Veger spat, his right eye began twitching.

"What the hell are you talking about?! We decided to go to a pizza parlor for the day!"

"Silence you fool! Exhibit C! At a 17 year old Justin's party, he replaced my humble entertainment with a supposed famous rock band, hoping for a clean show. Little did I know that he had wandered backstage, supposedly to check his Metal Head ambush on the music group and have the Metal Heads disguise themselves and use musical instruments that would hypnotize the crowd into having them obey the MH leader's every whim!"

"What the do you think you're saying? I was just telling them that the show was starting! Dude, you are seriously one messed up fruit loop."

"I am not! You want embarrassing evidence? HERE," Veger yelled, clicking the projector to go to several pictures of Robin hitting on other boys.

"That doesn't even make sense, let alone have anything to do with this trial!"

"Yeah, and besides, that happened way back before I even joined the FG," Robin blurted out.

"Lies! ALL LIES!! Admit that you're a double agent! Admit that you never wanted to invite me to your birthday parties! Admit that you're girlfriend's a slut! REPENT!! **AND THOU SHALT BE SAVED!!!!! AAAAHHAHAHAHAHHAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!**"

By now, the entire council room and fallen dead silent, as Veger began twitching drastically, waiting for an answer.

"Uh, meeting adjourned. Jury, go over this case and give us your verdict tomorrow," Veger said nervously, as everyone left the courtroom, Justin giving Veger another weird look before exiting.

The next day, the group was once again called to the council room, as the Jury presented their decision.

"Has the jury reached a verdict," Veger asked.

"Yes sir. We hereby find the defendant not guilty and cleared of all accusations and charges. But he is very strange," the head juror said.

"See, what did I tell you? Now if you'll excuse us, we'll be leaving now," Justin said, as he and the others started leaving, but soon after Veger interrupted.

"Not so fast, I still get a vote in this! You still have a very unforgivable and very disobedient background, and for that, you will be punished. As ordered from the head of the council of Haven City, you are now hereby sentenced to spend three to five months in the harsh, unforgiving wasteland," Veger commanded, writing the sentence on a peace of paper and handed it to Justin.

"Veger, that's a death sentence! There's absolutely no villages or any people living out there! It's way to hot and humid for any of us," Torn spat.

"The commander's right. As governess of this City, I have more power over the Council then Torn, and as governess, I hereby drop the imposed sentence on Justin, even though you are right about everything," Ashelin said. However, Veger was very quick to retaliate.

"Ah, ah, ah, Ashelin, do you recall the little agreement we had back when I sent Carter and the abomination down to the port? As I remember, the contract clearly states that as long as your name is on this document, and as long as the city is being threatened, I have just as much power as you do, meaning that I can also overturn your decisions. And once it's been overturned, you can't fight back. Therefore, the sentence remains."

"That wasn't in the contract when I signed it! Here, let me see that," Ashelin retaliated, and skimmed through the contract, and sure enough, there was the statement near the bottom, clearly confirming what Veger had said. Ashelin ran her finger over the paragraph, and just as she suspected, the letters smudged slightly, meaning that the ink was still barely fresh, which meant that he had actually wrote that in not too long ago.

"This ink is still wet! You made an illegal change to the contract!"

"No I didn't, because as it also clearly states I have the right to change the contract as needed and as freely as I can. You should look over things more carefully governess."

"You sick monster," Ashelin spat, as she left the courtroom without hesitation.

"So it is agreed. Justin, you are to pack anything you want for the stay, if you do last that long. Me and some soldiers will be by your quarters to pick you up first thing tomorrow. Meeting adjourned!"

"Justin...I'm...so sorry for you," Robin said, and held him tightly, Justin hugging her back and whispered in her ear,

"Don't worry, Robin, I'll be back. I promise."

"No you won't! You'll probably die within the first few minutes that you're out there!"

"Look, I've been in this place for a while and one of the first things I learned is to not give up hope. I won't die on you. I've been trained to take on such intense heat."

"Only for about ten minutes! What about an hour? Two hours? Three?"

"Robin, calm down. I swear in the precursors that you'll see me again. Now be a good girl and stop crying, please. It'll be OK. I won't die on you."

"Alright, I'll stop," she said as she released him and left, turning back around at the door.

"Justin," she asked.

"Yeah?"

"I love you."

Justin hesitated for a moment before slowly saying: "I...do...too. I love you, too."

"Oh, for heaven's sake, will you two take it outside," Veger spat, the two just stood there, ignoring him. After almost driving Veger on the brink with their little mushy sentences, the two hugged for the last time and went there separate ways.

Later that night, Justin was packing up some of his things when there was a knock at the door. He went and answered it, a very unexpected person was standing there.

"Uh, hi, Ashelin, why are you here at this time?"

"Well, for two things. One, as much as I hate to say this, I'm sorry that I couldn't do anything about this. I probably shouldn't have signed that contract at all. I know that you're getting to be one of our best fighters, and I don't want to lose you," she said, as Justin led her into his room.

"Thanks, Ash, but I don't think I'm gonna fade out anytime soon."

"I know, and that's why I'm giving you this," she said, putting a small oval-shaped object in his hand.

"What's it for?"

"Well, I've been keeping a big secret from everyone here for a while, and I think you should be the first one to know. When I was still very young, about two years old, there once was a very fair and very honest king that ruled this city named Damas. He had come to power during the Metal Head war, and just as fast as he had become the best ruler of the city, my father betrayed him and banished him and all of his subjects to the wasteland. Over the years, I began to hate how my father had been treating his position as baron. Then, one day, I was getting the mail when a small letter caught my eye. It was from Damas, stating that he was alive and well, and had built his own city called Spargus. I told myself to never let my father know about this, nor anyone else. Do not under any circumstances let Veger see that beacon. As long as that beacon is active, we can trace it. Damas knows about the tech of Haven and he'll find you, I promise. Just stay alive, you hear me?"

"Yeah, I will."

"I'm also secretly sending Pecker with you out there, too. He's the only other person that knows about the wasteland and all of it's secrets."

"That beak flapper? You've got to be kidding."

"I'm serious. He may talk a lot, but he knows more about this stuff than me."

"OK, if you say so," Justin said. And with that, Ashelin left his room, as Jusitn finished packing his things and went to bed.

The next morning, things went as planned. Justin was taken from his room, and led to the transport, where he found many of his friends waiting. He said his goodbyes, and was soon taken onto the KG air train, and was taken to the middle of the wasteland. And as Ashelin had said, pecker had somehow stowed away on the train (shows him sneaking into one of Justin's suitcases) and was there too. Once the air train was gone, they started walking in a random direction, contemplating about what the were going to do now.

"OK, pecker, Ashelin told me you know all about this place. Where's this city called Spargus," Justin asked.

"Uh, I don't know. I never actually knew that part," Pecker responded, as Justin looked at the beacon and sighed.

"_I hope you're right about this, Ashelin. I don't want to die now."_

After many hours of walking around, the heat was really getting to them, and soon, Justin had fallen to the ground, exhausted.

"OK, this is good. Just...rest here...for...a while," he said, feeling real dizzy.

"Ugh, this bird is overcooked," Pecker said, and he too fell to the ground, as the two's grip on reality faded away. Justin muttered one last thing before falling unconscious.

"Robin," he said, before blacking out.

(A few hours later)

A group of strangely dressed elves were driving a very strange-looking vehicle around the wasteland, searching for an energy source that was detected on a radar.

"How much further," one asked. He was very tall, taller than the other two, and had a long staff with some kind of artifact at the end. He had on a very desert-style wardrobe, and had a crown on his head with white spikes tied to it.

"Just a little bit further," another answered. He was shorter that the others, and really, uh, chubby. He had a big blond mustache, and a scar running down his left eye. He also wore the same desert-style clothing.

"Hey, what's that over there," the third asked, as they parked the vehicle and walked up to where Justin and Pecker were at.

"Looks like we've found some live ones. Heh, barely," The tall man said, poking Justin with his staff, the beacon falling out of his hand.

"Here's the source of the energy we were picking up," he said, taking it from the unconscious rookie's hand and examining it closely.

"Looks like a beacon," the short man stated.

"This technology isn't from around here. It would only come from a large place like...Haven City!"

"These two are from the big smoke?"

"Apparently," The tall one said, feeling around Justin's body for a pulse.

"They're suffering from extreme dehydration. We'll take them with us back to Spargus. Kleiver, get the boy. Morris, take the bird."

"Yes, your lordship," they both said, and picked up the two and put them into the vehicle.

"Let's move! I smell a storm coming."

"If that's the case, it's a good thing we found them. We'd better hurry back," Morris said.

"Shut up and drive, Morris," Kleiver said, as the three drove out into the distance, turning a corner and disappearing out of sight...


	5. A Whole New Game

**Here's Chapter 5, re-edited and remastered! Kind of.**

Chapter 5: A Whole New Game

Damas, Kleiver, and Morris soon arrived back at the city vehicle garage, and parked the transport in a vacant lot. The group got a still barely conscious Justin and Pecker out and continued to carry them all the way through the sandy streets to the elevator to Damas's palace.

"So, what do we do now," Morris asked.

"Treat them first. Make sure they get plenty of water and cool them down a bit. Then get the boy a change of clothes. From what I see, what he's got on now won't do him very well in this heat," Damas responded, referring to Justin's heavy armor.

"Yes, King Damas," Morris said, as they entered the throne room.

"I will return in a few hours to see if you've done your job," Damas said, as he left the room to his own personal quarters. Morris put Justin down in one of the small water springs and filled a canteen with water, giving it to him. After a few seconds, the young rookie suddenly opened his eyes slowly, his vision very blurry.

"I'm...alive," he breathed.

"Take it easy, man, you're still really dehydrated. You need to rest and drink a lot of water, as ordered by King Damas."

"_Damas. Huh, I guess Ashelin was right," _Justin thought, before falling asleep...

It had taken several days, but Justin was soon up to full strength and ready to fight, sitting down in the spring, lounging.

"So, you've come back from the dead, have you," Damas said, entering the room. "And my monks were ready to prey for you."

"You must be the head honcho around here," Justin remarked.

"Precisely. I am Damas, king of Spargus!"

"So the stories were true. There really is a city outside Haven's walls."

"Ah, yes. We are the forgotten ones. Haven's refuge, thrown out and left to die, just as you were. I'm sure you have heard many rumors. The beacon we found with you was made with better technology than we have here in Spargus. I gather you were sent out here as punishment for something?"

"Yeah, our stupid-ass council leader Veger threw me out here because of my "unfriendly background"."

"The city has saved you from the harsh acts of the wasteland, and your live now belongs to the people of Spargus, and we will use it well, heh, if it's actually worth anything."

"That sounds like a bad deal."

"You are in NO position to deal! Out here, everything is either useful, or dead weight! Prove yourself worthy, or the desert will be your grave!"

"You need to work on making a better first impression," Justin said, offended.

"Ha, ha, out here in the wasteland, we value strength and survival above all. We will see where you stand soon enough. Complete your training, then head to the battle arena. Only the bravest of fighters crawl out out of those battles and are allowed to stay in Spargus.

"What happens to the ones who don't crawl out?"

"Then it will be as if we never found you."

"I was afraid of that."

After the first talk, Justin set out for the battle arena, and since he had no map to follow, he ended up asking countless numbers of people where to go, but most people ignored him. Finally, he found one boy who was kind enough to lead him right to the entrance. After a few thank-yous, Justin headed inside for his "training".

"Hello, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the arena of death, where we watch puny contestants wet themselves in fear," a familiar voice said, as Justin scouted the area to find out who it was.

"Today, we have one new challenger, fighting for his right to stay among us! Lets here it for that bad boy with the big attitude, Justin!"

Justin waved his hands around before spotting none other than Pecker sitting on top of Damas's shoulder.

"Pecker, there you are, where have you been?"

"Damas says I am to be his new counselor. Damas says my knowledge will serve him well. Oh, and Damas says you are likely to die in the arena today, and he hopes your death will be, uh..."

"Will you cut it out! Damas can speak for himself," Justin interrupted.

"He is right, you will most likely die," Damas said, pounding his staff on the ground. "And yes, Pecker is my new adviser," he finished, a disgusted look in his face appeared when he said so.

"Unlike you, some people actually appreciate my talents! It beat working for a living. I saw a few of the fights earlier...ooh, not a pretty sight."

"What's that supposed to mean," Justin asked.

"Uh...Let the games begin," pecker said, as the obstacle course was activated in front of Justin, several platforms and challenges withing it. The light above the entrance turned from red, to yellow, to green, as Justin bolted from the starting gate, jumping up onto the first platform. He then walked down a path, knocked a training dummy into the lava pit with a powerful spin kick, and continued on, as he summoned his dark energy to jump high into the air, grabbing the ledge above and pulling himself up. He then moved on, and punched the next training dummy out of the way and into the lava. Next, he saw a platform that was really far away from him. He gathered his powers again and cleared the gap easily, as he did so in the next one, and continued on, curb-stomping a grater and jumping down to the lower floor, as he got over the next set of gaps, and crossed the finish line. He then got on the elevator and went up to the platform where Pecker and Damas sat waiting.

"The candidates have...won the...challenge," Pecker said uneasily.

"You are very good as far as speed is concerned, but anyone in Spargus can make a few measly jumps. Now let's see how you rate against the living," Damas said. "Re-adjust the matter-formers! Prepare the arena for full combat!"

"Prepare the arena for full combat," Pecker re-instated.

"I just said that."

"I know, I was just adding the thing, you know, and, anyway, prepare the warriors."

"You mean, I have to fight real people with real weapons, who actually want to hurt me," Justin asked.

"Yes, you do," Damas said.

"Heh, fine, Bring them on."

After a good fight with his scatter gun, the challenge had ended, but not before Justin had turned dark again. As he stepped onto the platform where Damas waited, he saw a strange figure at one of the exits, but as he looked at it, something made his head hurt, as he turned away, a very impatient Damas looking him in the eye.

"Something you're not telling us, animal man?"

"He has been touched, by Dark Eco, my liege," Pecker said mystifyingly.

"Yeah, I sorta have this problem I can't figure out," Justin said.

"Ah, then he is dangerous. And that could be useful. Your bravery has earned you your first battle amulet. If you are victorious in two more arena fights, you will become a true wastelander, and earn your citizenship to Spargus. Here is a gate pass to allow free access in and out of the city. But be warned, there is no true refuge outside these walls. The desert is lest kind than I. And for your victory, a gun mod is your prize. This will give it a significant damage upgrade, which you'll need if you want to be able to face the tests we have in store for you. You are now dismissed. I will notify you when I need your sources again."

"Thank you, Damas," Justin said, as he began walking out, but soon turned his head to look if that stranger from before was still there, but it wasn't. He just shrugged his shoulders and proceeded through the exit door. As Justin left, Damas retreated back behind a curtain to a telephone, picking it up and dialing a number.

(At FG headquarters)

Robin was quietly going over her paperwork at her office desk. She was basically a secretary, not personal, but she handled calls and stuff. She was doing it quietly because inside her head, she was screaming for Justin to come back, and she had been in an emotional mess since he left. Her thoughts were intruded when the phone at her desk rang.

"Hello, FG headquarters, Robin speaking. How can I help your needs and/or transfer your call?"

"I need to speak to the head of your city," the voice asked.

"Uh, Torn is busy now, I can leave him a message for you," Robin answered.

"No, the other leader."

"Oh, you mean Ashelin. Uh, sure, I think I can get to her. One second," Robin said, as she hit the com button to Ashelin's office.

(In Ashelin's office)

Much like robin, Ashelin was sorting through papers and suggested laws when her intercom light flashed.

"Ashelin here," she said.

"Ashelin, you have a call on line 4," Robin responded.

"Thanks, honey. Hello, I'm here. State your business."

"Ashelin, good to talk to you again," the voice said.

"Damas? Is that you?"

"Yes, it is. Is this line on any kind of security?"

"No, why?"

"Because I think we found one of your citizens lost in the desert a few days ago. We found one of your beacons with him. Would you like to explain this?"

"First off, thank the precursors that you found him. I really didn't want him to die out there. And second, Justin is supposed to be banished to the wasteland for three months because of his very dangerous background," Ashelin explained.

"Such as," Damas asked.

"Well, friendly fire, misbehavior, etc."

"Oh, so he could be of use to me after all."

"Well, don't get too sure of yourself. The one who banished him was the head of the council here, Count Veger. Have you heard of him?"

"Yes, he is a good friend of my monks, and I have met him a few times," Damas replied. "He is a little, bothersome at times,though."

"Well, Veger would have a fit if he found out you found him and nurtured him. Until he gets back, don't speak a word about this conversation to anyone, understand?"

"I will try my best, Ashelin," he said.

"Thanks a lot. Keep me updated on his condition."

"I will. Damas out," he said, and hung up.

(Back at Robin's desk)

Robin was in a huge stage of relief. She had been listening to the conversation the entire time.

"Oh, thank god Justin's alive. I should probably keep this to myself. Ashelin would kill me if I told Veger about this," she said, but as she was getting up, she heard an all to familiar voice behind her.

"Tell me what," Veger asked.

"Ah! Oh, god, Veger, how long have you been there?"

"For only a few moments. I heard you talking to yourself and decided to come over and investigate. Now, what's this about not telling me something?"

"If I did, Ashelin would kill both of us," She answered.

"Now, you can trust a secret with me. I won't tell her."

"I'm sorry, but, I just can't."

"Veger, what the hell are you doing to her," Ashelin asked, as she had just walked out of her office and witnessed this.

"I'll be back," he said to Robin, as he waltzed calmly over to Ashelin. "Ah, governess, what a surprise. I was just asking her a few questions," Veger responded. "I gather she was just listening in on one of your conversations."

"Well, I can deal with that. You just wander around and I'll talk with her," She responded, and went over to Robin with her usual stern look. "OK, Robin, what were you doing a few minutes ago?"

"I listened to your phone call with Damas," she said shyly.

"Listen, you need to promise me that no one around here is to know about that. Not even your friends. Gossip will get around the area and Mr. tight ass over there will get to it and be pissed off. Do you understand me?"

"Yes."

"OK. Get back to work," Ashelin said, leaving to go back to her office.

(Back in Spargus)

As Justin walked out of the arena, he saw a big muscular man standing with his head down leaning against the wall.

"Nice moves in the arena, boy," the man said as Justin walked by him. "But a little more choke, and you would've popped, eh?"

"You talking to me," Justin asked.

"No, I'm conversing with me sweet departed mum. Of course you, ya bore head! So, you're from the big smoke, Haven city, right?"

"Whose asking?"

"The guy who runs this place, that's who! Kleiver's the name. Stick with me, little bloke, and I'll take care of ya. In fact, I got a job for you right now. Ride this leaper lizard here and catch a few orange kanga-rats that have been raiding me store rooms. Catch enough, and maybe I'll let you drive one of me racing vehicles. That is, if Damas ever lets you leave the city."

"Racing vehicles, huh? OK, Kleiver, you got a deal. Now just tell me how to ride one of these things, and I'll be on my way," Justin said, in which he got a huge laugh from the big guy.

"Bloody hell, mate, I've never ridden one of em before! I'd probably crush it before I even tried to go anywhere! You're on your own, buddy," Kleiver said, and walked off, leaving Justin to deal with his new "friend".

"Great, now how am I gonna get to drive a racer," Justin said to himself, as he began walking down the steps, the same little boy who led him to the arena was down there, minding his own business.

"Hey, kid, come here," Justin called out, as the boy ran over to him without hesitation.

"Oh, hello, nice to see you again! Need any help?"

"Yeah, how do you ride these things?"

"It's real simple, just get on, and hit your heals lightly against it's sides to get it to follow your orders. Now just tell it what you want to do," he said, and within no time Justin was up and handling the leaper lizard like a pro. As he turned to thank the boy, however, he saw that he had disappeared. Justin shrugged his shoulders, and within a few minutes he had caught all 6 rats, the lizard eating them all whole.

"I got what I could find," Justin said, approaching Kleiver who was wandering about aimlessly.

"Good work, boy. Maybe my food stores will last a little longer now. If Damas ever gives you a pass to leave the city, I'll let you drive one of me vehicles. If you want something to do, go check out those weird precursor monks over there. Maybe they can give you a job or two. See ya around, newbie," Kleiver responded, pointing over to the end of the pathway where a group of monks in brown were looking over a strange purple object, and walking off (If you aren't following me, this is where the big section where the gun tower and beach is).

Since he had nothing better to do, Justin decided to go see what all the fuss was about, and approached one of the monks who was standing in front of the thing, whatever it was.

"_Heh, nice clothes. I didn't know rubber was back in," _Justin thought, and turned to the monk. "What're you working on, monk boy?"

"It is none of your concern, citizen," the monk answered.

"Look, coloring book, I've had a hard few weeks. Don't push it."

"The arena shows all, dark one. Hate consumes your eyes."

"Great, thanks for the tip."

"It will destroy you, just as these precursors destroyed themselves," the monk said, pointing to the large purple thing.

"Doesn't look like any precursor crap I've seen."

"Precursor artifacts are not "crap". They are cherished items and pieces of the legacy of the great gods. However, this one is worthy of the title, "crap". Artifacts such as this are an abomination. One fell on the great volcano. I sent an expedition to the volcano, but my monks never returned. Ill tidings fill the wind. I feel the remaking of the world is at hand."

"Uh, I think you've been out in the sun a little too long. I'll leave you to whatever it is that you're doing here," Justin said, and began walking off, when the monk began speaking again.

"You must leave this place at once. You could not possibly understand the dark forces at work here," she said. Now Justin pretty much snapped, as he stomped over to the monk and blurted out:

"OK, there are three things you need to know. 1, I can't leave. I've been banished here for 3 months by the idiot council leader in Haven, Veger. 2, don't talk to me about dark powers. And 3, I want to know what this thing is," he said, pointing his hand at the giant artifact, when suddenly a crackle formed between the artifact and Justin's hand, the dark eco in Justin's body activating some sort of computer.

"Stand back," Justin ordered, as he went over to the computer, and after a short puzzle, cracked the code, as a strange crystal appeared.

"Don't touch that! Dark eco," the monk yelled, as Justin reached out slowly, and grabbed the crystal, surprised that it didn't shock his hand.

"Impressed, aren't you?"

"Hardly. Those are solid eco crystals. Strange," she said, as the computer screen began "talking". "It speaks in ancient dialect. Something about...reclaiming this unfinished world?"

"I don't think I like what this thing is yapping to! GET DOWN," Justin yelled, as all the monks and him hit the deck, as the satellite began floating in the air, a glow forming at the tip, and seconds later, it exploded in a cloud of Dark Eco.

"Even you can not save us from this, dark one," the monk said after getting up and recovering.

"Look, I can be as much help as you want me to be," Justin said.

"Thanks but no thanks. We monks have plans to take care of ourselves. Dark channelers such as you are not welcome in this city," she responded, as the group of monks walked off.

"Hmm, what did she mean by "reclaiming this unfinished world? One thing's for sure, I've got a bad feeling about this," Justin said to himself, as he started walking off for another job, and remembered that Damas had given them a pass out of the city, and then remembered Kliever's deal.

"Time to test out my driving skills," Justin said, as he headed to the vehicle garage, still trying to figure out what had just happened a few minutes ago...


	6. Wheeled Vehicles, Artifacts, and Races

**MR. C: After searching for my internet router, chapter 6 is finally here! I'm going to try something a little new. If the condition is right, or I'm not too lazy, I'll throw in a quote from some songs I know. There's one at the bottom of this Chapter right now, but DON'T scroll all the way down to see it! Read the AN at the bottom for something more. And without anymore distractions, Here's Chapter 6!**

Chapter 6: Wheeled Vehicles, Artifacts, and Races

Justin had soon arrived at the race garage, and had found Kleiver moping about the area. (just as a time refresher, it's about 4 in the afternoon)

"Well, well, if it isn't the newbie," he said, slightly sarcastically.

"Keep talking, jelly boy, we'll see who's..." Justin started, but was grabbed by the shirt and hoisted up to Kliever's face.

"Bite ya bum, wanker, or I'll pound ya!"

"Ugh, great stink of the Precursors! I've got one word for you: toothbrush," Justin said, an annoying growl coming from Kleiver. "Just, put me down, OK?"

"Sorry. People who talk like that make me angry," Kleiver explained, putting Justin down on the ground.

"I know how you feel. I've felt like picking guys up and bashing the hell out of em many times," Justin said. "Well, at least this isn't as bad as the first time I met Baron Praxis in person back in Haven."

(Shows flashback of a 10-year old Justin attending the "meet Baron Praxis" day at the Haven Mall. He was being annoying, so Praxis picked him up and put him in a catapult and flung him out of the mall, then his mom starts yelling at Praxis, and she gets arrested for the night)

"Uh, who's this "Praxis" guy," Kliever asked.

"Old ruler who was killed by the MH leader, now his curvaceous bombshell of a daughter is in control of the city," Justin responded, motioning his hands to draw a curvy like figure, similar to Ashelin's body, then looked around the garage at all of the vehicles. "Wow, nice rides, Kleiver."

"Ya like what you see? We use these babies to make runs into the deep desert to retrieve artifacts. Tough wheels for tough work."

"You said I could use one," Justin said, and for backup, held up the gate pass Damas gave him.

"I did, didn't I? But not one of those. Those are for the big boys," Kleiver said, gesturing his hand above his head, as if to say it meant "people like me". "You can use that one," He said, pointing to a small buggy-like car with no weapons.

"Ha! What a runt!"

"Seems to fit you," Kliever said, as Justin sat in the driver's seat, checking out the systems. They were very standard as in Haven, but the added use of wheels and heavier armor was very strange. "Care to wager a little something on a race, then? If you win, I'll let you keep that vehicle for as long as you live. And if I win?"

"I don't have anything."

"What about that wee little gun on your back? It's about time I got me a new set of shooting irons. My vehicle against that."

"Uh, I've...never driven a wheeled vehicle."

"No problem. My assistant over there, Morris, can give you a quick and easy tutoring lesson. Morris!"

"Yeah, Kleiver," Morris yelled, coming over to the two.

"Get your ass over here and teach the newbie here how to drive something with wheels," Kleiver instructed.

"Yes, sir. Come on, Kid, let's use the Sand Shark for this, since it's a two seater," Morris said, pointing to a slightly larger yellow vehicle with duel machine guns on the front. The two got in the vehicle, and soon enough Justin had mastered the controls perfectly, and swapped into the tough puppy, driving up to the starting line, not too far from the entrance to the garage.

"Here we go, everyone," Kleiver said, as the light turned red, then yellow, then green, as all the contestants bolted out of the starting line. Because of the Tough Puppy's slow speed, Justin was having a little trouble advancing through the pack. But, with the use of added turbo boosts, he manged to make it to 2nd in two laps, and was now going at it neck and neck with Kleiver. Both contestants drove hard and fast, but in the end, Justin had just edged out in front of Kleiver to pick up the win, and a new car.

"So, you beat me," Kleiver said, driving up to Justin. "I said you could keep that vehicle for as long as you live. Well, let's just see how long that is, mate," he finished, driving off into the garage, Justin wondering about what he said. He shrugged his shoulders, and drove back to the garage, where Damas and Pecker were waiting for them, Justin sliding to a halt a few feet away from Damas.

"Nice wheel work. My adviser here says you have vehicle skills," Damas stated.

"I can hold my own," Justin said.

"This one will be of use to us, Damas," Pecker remarked. "I think you should keep him for now."

"Can it, pecker," Justin said.

"Anyway, there are a number of artifacts that lay hidden in the desert. Fresh storms churn the sands, revealing items that have been buried for centuries. I need you to take a vehicle and find as many as you can before the storms come again. And one more thing, if you get caught in a sandstorm, it will tear the flesh from your very bones," Damas instructed.

"Great, thanks for the pep talk," Justin said.

"Just get the items," Damas said, as Justin get in the vehicle, and bolted out of the garage.

Everything seemed normal at first. The desert was very beautiful and lush. Soft, yellowish tan sand filled the ground, many palm trees were visible, as well as many cliffs, mountains, and rock faces. And to top it all off, the sun shone brightly and warmly, giving a very comforting feeling to anyone outside.

Ignoring the scenery, Justin continued driving about, looking for artifacts. At first he couldn't find anything, but soon his communicator started going off.

"Yeah," he said.

"Justin, it's Morris. I think you may like to know that all of our vehicles have a radar witch can detect precursor metal, which is what the artifacts are made of. It should help you find those artifacts easier," Morris said.

"Thanks, I needed that," Justin replied, as he turned on the radar. The rest was easy; well, except for trying to avoid the marauders, who were constantly firing at Justin, and without any weapons, he was reduced to bobbing and weaving around the vehicles. After a long time of retrieving the stuff, Justin had soon grabbed the last artifact and was darting towards the garage entrance, a sandstorm beginning to form. After about a few seconds, he finally reached the entrance, Pecker and Damas awaiting him.

"Good work, that was...close," Damas said, his eyes getting that sad look as he said "close".

"Aww, are you beginning to care," Pecker asked Damas, as he just crossed his arms and frowned. "Damas says..." Pecker started, but was cut off when Damas grabbed his mouth and held it shut, Pecker mumbling something.

"My concern was for the artifacts, and we will use them well," Damas said, and turned to look at the armor in Justin's hand. "That armor in your hands, it is very rare. Pecker here says it was the very same armor Mar once wore during his battles on this planet. They seem to be your size," he said, as Justin strapped them on to his arms. "Take those for yourself. Trust me, you'll need them."

"They're a tiny bit big, but other that that they fit fine," Justin said. "Is precursor metal machine-washable?"

"We don't use washing machines out here, Justin. We dry our clothes the old fashioned way. "

"But when I get back to Haven..."

"Has any metal ever been able to be washed in a washing machine?"

"Well, no."

"So there's your answer. You should get going now."

"Uh, yeah," Justin said. "Wow, that was a random conversation," he said, exiting, and then saw the little monk he met earlier standing a few feet down the path with a leaper lizard.

"_Wonder what she wants," _Justin thought, and approached the monk.

"You are still here," she said bluntly.

"Yeah, thought I'd hang out, catch some rays," Justin responded jokingly.

"This isn't a game! I am Seem. We monks are sworn to protect the secrets of the precursors. These leaper mounts allow us to travel where you cannot."

"Man, those things sure stuff their faces," Justin said, eying the lizard gobbling up a cactus plant. "I saw one slurp up a few kanga-rats not to long ago."

"Yes, they do have a varying appetite. Anyway, I must ask you about that Dark Eco crystal from the satellite. I want it back before it falls into the wrong hands. I'll wager a light eco crystal against it, if you race my monks on their leapers. Win, and their both yours. Lose, and I get them both."

" I just finished racing Kleiver, but I suppose one more race couldn't hurt. Just show me where the starting line is."

"Over there," Seem said, pointing to the other monks on leapers about five feet away from them. "I hope you know how to ride one of them at full speed. It can get a bit...hard to stay on."

"I can handle it," Justin said, and hopped on the lizard, who walked to the rest of the pack.

"Ready," Seem said, holding out a white flag. "Set...Go!" She yelled, swiping the flag, as the pack bolted off of the line, the wind speed kicking up slightly behind them, sweeping Seem off of her feet momentarily. They were fast alright, and Justin, most expected, was having trouble controlling the lizard. It was staying on course, but at a varying speed limit. It would often either creep around a corner, or take it too fast and almost go into the wall. Although he switched places, he was able to stay in first all the way through the final stretch, and to the finish line.

"Oh yeah," Justin said, holding up his arms in celebration as the lizard skidded to a halt, along with the rest of the racers.

"Fine, hero, the crystal is yours," Seem said, handing him the Light Eco crystal. "The two types, light and dark, when combined, form great energies. Be careful with them! And when you die, do be kind enough to bring them back."

"I don't plan on dying anytime soon. Why are you so obsessed with death, anyway?"

"It's because of that," Seem said, pointing to the glowing purple star in the sky.

"Wow, I haven't noticed that since I've been here. Hell, I haven't noticed that at all. Why is a star going to be the death of us?"

"It is called the Daystar, and everyday it grows brighter. I fear this planet's final trial is coming."

"Daystar, huh? Well, I've never heard of it."

"If you studied your precursor history in school, then you'd know what it means. I must leave now. The temple calls," She said, walking away, the rest of the monks following her, kinda like when the representatives from Toyota and Honda come to my mom and step-dad's workplace. They always have one guy up front, and then everyone else following that person in a weird way. Anyway, Justin was about to walk off when his communicator beeped.

"Yeah," Justin asked, a very familiar voice on the other line.

"JUSTIN!!!"

"Agh! Robin, how the hell do you know what my communicator frequency is!?"

"Ashelin's been talking to Damas secretly, and she got me your comm number. I'm on a secure network, and Ashelin says I can't be very long, or else Veger may get suspicious. Oh, god, I'm just so glad you're alive! I miss you sooo much!"

"Well, you're talking to me now, aren't you?"

"Yes, I am. Look, I'm seriously glad you're alive. But my time's running out, so I gotta go soon."

"Robin one last thing. I need you to ask the guys to look up something called, "the daystar". Something tells me these next few months are going to be very interesting."

"Kay! Bye, Justin! I love you," Robin said.

"I love you too," Justin responded, as they hung up and with one last breath, Justin breathed, "more than you know", and walked off to his quarters to get some sleep...

"_I'm here without you baby,_

_but you still loam my lonely mind_

_I think about you baby,_

_and I dream about you all the time_

_I'm here without you, baby,_

_But you're still with me in my dreams_

_and tonight, girl,_

_It's only you and me..."_

(Song: "Here Without You"

Artist: 3 Doors Down

Album: Away From the Sun)

**(Sniff) So emotional! Review, and be sure to check out my forum, the Chatterbox, in the Jak section, and if you like webcomics, visit or And if you like this story, go check out "Jak: Retrebution" by AJMS. See Ya until next time, dudes!**


	7. A New Enemy

**After a few long weeks, and several document uploader errors, Chapter 7 is finally here! I'm taking a twist in the story here and wandering off a bit in the middle and end of the chapter. And I gave little plot twist at the bottom of the chapter. Thanks to AJMS, Airie of the Dragon Tribe, satan'stosterstrudel, and Azure Euphoria for the reviews so far. You're keeping me going here. Remember to visit my forum, "The Chatterbox", in the Jak and Daxter section, and post comments about this fic and others, as well as submit random J&D stuff.**

**I own nothing except this fic and My OC's Justin and Robin.**

**Mr. Chocolate (From the Wasteland)**

Chapter 7: A New Enemy

Justin woke up the next day to someone bluntly pounding on the door. When he went to go see who it was, his day had already gone bad when it was none other than Kleiver on the other side.

"You looking for a bit of action, hero," Kleiver asked.

"No, I'm trying to sleep, I haven't gotten a bit of sleep since I got here, and now you're cutting into my dream time," Justin answered.

"There's never any time for rest out here, boy. You never know when something is gonna show up that needs killing. Anyway, scopes show a few Metal Heads moving through the desert not to far from here. I don't like Metal Heads almost as much as I don't like you! And you've got some proving to do."

"Well, I hate Metal Heads, too. I think that's something we can agree on," Justin said.

"That's not the point. The point is, I want you to go intercept those bad boys and give em hell. Who knows, you might even get a few toys for your effort."

"Why does it sound like you're leaving out the dangerous parts?"

"Well, have you ever seen a wasteland Metal Head," Kleiver asked.

"No, why," Justin answered.

"Nothing, just wondering. Go get em, hero," Kleiver said, chuckling. "And you can take the Sand Shark for this job. It's parked next to the Tough Puppy. The machine guns will be substantial enough for taking them down."

"Oh, finally, a vehicle with some protection," Justin said, and left for the garage after a short cleanup, and jumped into the Sand Shark and started it up, gunning out of the gate. The tracker on the car's radar led him to a open section on the right, with a lot of hills. He then spotted a Metal Head in the distance, and when he got closer, he realized that it was HUGE. It was like a kind of dinosaur, big, two feet, two small arms, and looked a little like a mini T-Rex. He charged for it, but his attempt failed as it just flung the car thirty feet away from it. Justin then went at it again, this time hammering it with machine gun fire. It took a while, but Justin finally brought the first one down, and long after had brought down the other three.

The last Metal Head fell the the ground, a Dark Eco crystal falling from it, as well as a green communicator of some sort. Justin went and picked up the crystal, but soon after the comm activated, a strangely familiar face appearing on the other end.

"Metal Head commander, report! Do you hear me? If you lost that cargo and you're still alive, I'll kill you myself," it said, Justin looking on in interest. "I want every Dark Eco crystal you can find! Time is short! Do you hear me?"

"Sorry, dude, but your commander's toast," Justin told the face.

"Wait, who are you?"

"I'm the guy that took out your precious servants," Justin said, showing all 4 dead Metal Head carcasses to the head.

"WHAT!? Oh, you'll live to regret this, stranger. I promise you that."

"Yeah, whatever. Later, dude," Justin said, squishing the comm in his hand. "Why did that guy look familiar?" Ignoring the facts, Justin soon departed off back to Spargus.

(Back at Haven)

It was lunch time, and Robin, not forgetting the promise she made to Justin, entered the FG mission room where Torn was going over some papers, as usual.

"Torn, baby, I need a favor," she asked.

"It depends. I'm real busy."

"You're always busy. Anyway, I need you to look up something called "The Daystar"."

"I think I've heard Veger say something about it once. I know, go find the city mystic, Onin. She could probably tell you about it, seeing as it's old precursor history stuff," Torn suggested.

"But I thought pecker was the only one who knew what she could say, and he's all the way out in the desert!"

"Ashelin said that Damas as a computer in his quarters in Spargus. If he can get live video, we can get a Video camera and have Pecker stationed up there, on speaker-phone, giving us the translations."

"But I hope Onin will let us use all of that," Robin wondered.

"Ah, she'll let us. We can get her here, better yet, if she'll agree to come," Torn said.

"Right. I'll go find her. I think it's near the old KG fortress, right?"

"Yeah, near the main entrance, or, what's left of it," Torn replied, Robin saluting him before walking out and pulling a Justin, hijacking a zoomer, despite city laws. Soon enough, she had reached the old soothsayer's lair, and walked in, Onin meditating as always.

"Are you Onin," Robin asked, Onin simply nodded.

"I need some info on something called..."The daystar, but we need pecker here to translate, so I was wondering if you would come to the FG headquarters, and we'll let you up on a speaker-phone with him, who's all the way out in the wasteland, and," She explained, when Onin gestured her to come over, and with a few hand movements, they were suddenly in the FG mission room.

"Hm, teleportation, not bad," Robin said, Onin putting up a "thumbs up" sign. "Torn, over here," Robin yelled, as Torn looked over, almost having a heart attack.

"Holy shit! When did you get here," Torn asked, startled.

"A few seconds ago, by teleporting," Robin answered.

"Uh, Ok, then, we have the stuff set up, if you'd come over to the screen, we'll get pecker on," Torn said, as Onin floated over to the screen, the number dialing on Damas's computer.

(In Spargus)

Pecker and Damas were sitting in their quarters, as usual, when the computer phone suddenly rang. Damas went to get it.

"Yes, you've reached the office of King Damas of Spargus, Damas speaking. (mumbling) Pecker? OK, here," Damas said, handing the phone to his adviser.

"Yello," Pecker asked.

"Pecker, it's Torn. We have Onin here on speaker for you, we need her to tell us about "the daystar"," Torn said.

"Uh, OK, I'll try my best," Pecker said. "Go ahead. (Onin doing symbols) She says that the daystar isn't a star at all, but a ship, a Dark Maker Ship!? The Dark Makers are mutated precursors. Their exposure to Dark Eco changed them, and now they go about different worlds, using those ships to turn it into a kingdom of darkness. Now, they've found us, and are coming to claim it for their own," He continued. "They have been fighting with the Precursors for as long as Time has turned, and it wouldn't be the first time that a planet is lot to those monsters."

Outside, Veger was casually walking into the elevator, and was astonished to see what they were talking about.

"What's going on in here," Veger asked. "Who the...YOU! You're the bird that sneaked out of air train! You're alive?! And if you're alive, that means...THE DARK FREAK'S ALIVE TOO!! I knew it! You all have been helping him, haven't you? Oh, when I see him, he's gonna be dead!"

(At Spargus)

Justin was coming up the elevator for his next mission, when he saw Veger on the TV screen, and waltzed over to Damas and Pecker, coming into view.

"Looking for me, holy man," Justin said on TV.

"YOU!! Where are you?! I swear to the precursors that you will be dead when you get back! And I have the notion to send ALL of you out there with him for the rest of your life! And Ashelin, you should be ashamed of yourself for this, being in league with a criminal! You should all be ashamed! This is the highest act of treason in the City Council! You should all be put to death for this! Aaagh, I don't know why I'm wasting my time here. You will not live to see the day that this planet is free from those monsters, and I shall be the one who defeats them all! Goodbye, peasants," Veger ranted before storming off.

"Wow, he's pissed now," Justin said.

"Yeah, I think it would be best if you stay out there until he calms down," Ashelin suggested.

As the group decided what to do, Robin just stood there, staring at the screen, and at her boyfriend. If there wasn't a screen, she would go up there and tackle him to the floor and kiss him like an animal. She wandered out of her thoughts when the screen flickered off, and everyone went back to their positions, Onin teleporting back to her tent.

(In Spargus)

Justin had re-joined Damas in the palace room, ready for his next mission briefing.

"Once again, it is time to test your skills in the arena challenge. Defeat those who oppose you, and give the crowd a good show."

"Uh, yeah, about that, see, I'd like to place a complaint. I'm tired, fatty got me up earlier than I would like to have been up, my feet are killing me, and I think I'm getting a hangnail. So maybe I'll just sit this one out," Justin stated.

"Enough talk. You can have a break after the arena fight. Until then, go, the arena awaits," Damas ordered.

At the arena, Justin saw that the layout was a bit different then before. There were 4 sections, each with two places for deploying gladiators. He rode the elevator down, four KG crates were sitting in the middle of the first section. When he opened them, Dark Eco flooded into his body, turning him Dark once again.

He began doing what he always did, slashing through the lot of them all. But, when he was surrounded, he suddenly jumped and punched the ground, a huge ripple of Dark Eco spilling out, killing all of the gladiators. After taking out the rest with his Vulcan Fury, Justin returned to the elevator, and to the prize platform.

"I can't believe that you're still alive," Pecker said.

"Yeah, what a surprise," Justin remarked.

"Damas and I are very impressed," Pecker continued, Damas nodding his head yes.

"Hey, feather brain, who appointed you king?"

"He did," Pecker said, pointing to Damas. "Well not exactly, kind of a semi-king, you know. You should see our quarters with is harem of lovebirds. Ohhh, I never get any sleep these days. It's good to be the king, no," Pecker said, Damas smiling.

"I don't see no crown on that fat feather head," Justin said, in a hippie-girl sorta way.

"You want a crown? I'll crown you! Don't make me come down from this perch!"

"Oh, I got a perch for you, TWIRL ON IT," Justin yelled, holding up his obscene finger.

"That's it! IT'S GO TIME," Pecker yelled, diving at Justin.

"Bring it on," Justin yelled.

"ENOUGH," Damas yelled, making Justin and Pecker stop. "If I wanted you to fight, I would've commanded it. You did...very well, Justin...You make me proud that...our training program...is...so good. Here is a gun mod, and another battle amulet. One more win, and you will be a true wastelander," he continued, Justin slipping on the gun mod to get the Gyro Burster. Soon after, he left for his quarters for a nap.

(Back in Haven)

Robin was calmly sitting in her room, just getting her clothes together for her lunch break, when suddenly she heard her door open, and who worse to pop in that old Veger, with about three or four high-ranking FG soldiers, and Ashelin, who was standing outside briefly.

"Veger, what...what the hell are you doing in my room?!"

"Miss Robin, I'm not sorry for invading your privacy, but as voted by the Haven Council, you are hereby under arrest for treason and aiding a sentenced criminal. Place your hands behind your back, and we will go without a fight," Veger said. Robin did as she was told and bent her body down, the guards cuffing her, and as they exited, she saw Ashelin standing by the door.

"Ashelin, what's going on here?"

"I'm so sorry, the council was too powerful...they couldn't get rid of me or Torn, because we need to run the city, and so, with Veger knowing about your past history, well, yeah," Ashelin briefly explained.

"Looks like you'll be seeing your boyfriend sooner than you think," Veger remarked.

"YOU'RE THROWING ME OUT IN THE WASTELAND!?"

"Yes, that is the punishment for high treason, all though I'm afraid that this one is for life, and your boy's is only three months, and unlike him, you can't come back," Veger said.

"Can't I at least get a suitcase or something?"

"Earrgh, fine, but just to be safe, Carter, Maxwell, go in there and make sure that she doesn't try to pull one on you," Veger said, as Robin and the two guards entered her room, and after some rude and sexual innuendos and comments, they exited her bedroom, and took her to the air train, where she was dropped off at the Spargus entrance.

After walking in, she knew that the first thing was to find her boyfriend, and hopefully some shelter. After walking around for a few hours, she saw none other than Kleiver moping about the area.

"Um, excuse me, sir," She asked.

"Huh, what do ya want, little missy," Kleiver asked.

"I was wondering if you knew where someone was at," she asked again.

"Depends."

"His name is Justin?"

"Uh...hey, you must be the chick that young nipper's always talkin about. What you here for, vacation?"

"Yeah, a long vacation."

"Well, follow me," Kleiver said, and led her through the pack and to Justin's door...

**So, Robin is introduced to Kleiver. And don't worry, Justin won't stand for this. Review!**


	8. Road to the Temple

**Hello, fellow fanfictioners, and welcome to Chapter 8! The Temple journy will be divided into about two of three parts. This is part one, obviously. And no song quotes this time. That's all.**

**Again, I don't own anything except this fic and Robin and Justin. Everything else is copywright of Naughty Dog.**

**Mr. Chocolate (From the Wasteland)**

Chapter 8: The Precursor Temple, Part 1

Justin was once again trying to get some peace and quiet for the day, when all of a sudden, there was yet another pounding at his door.

"Ugh, damn it. Go away, Kleiver, I'm trying to sleep again," Justin yelled.

"Yeah, that's him," Robin said, as Kleiver kept knocking until Justin finally opened the door, presenting himself to the fat man.

"WHAT!"

"Does this lass belong to you, ankle biter," Kleiver asked, as Robin walked into view, waving at the rookie wastelander, his face turning red.

"Uh, yeah. You may want to leave us alone, Kleiver. This may get mushy," Justin warned.

"Yeah, I know. If you need something to do when your done, come find me in the garage after your session," he responded, and walked away.

"Robin, what are you doing here," Justin asked.

"Well, uh, first promise me that you won't go dark and go on a rampage after this," Robin answered.

"Depends."

"Well, Veger," She started, Justin's face already turning angry by the mentioning of his name. "They had debates about the whole thing with us talking to you, and calling it treason and all, and since Torn and Ashelin were needed at the city, well, I got the short stick, and, now, I'm banished here for life," she finished, Justin growling loudly.

"That old bastard. Don't worry, Robin, you won't be out here for life. Once my sentence is over, you're coming back with me whether Veger likes it or not."

"But...I could get killed!! OR you could!!"

"That's a risk I'll have to take. But, as long as you're out here, you might wanna take off that armor."

"What?! But..."

"Oh, come on, it's almost triple-digit heat out here, don't tell me that you're not dying," Justin said.

"Well, that's part of my past. I...was born and grew up out here. My original birthplace is a small village out here in the wasteland, full of...Dark Eco channelers. I was born with the ability to withstand boiling temperatures. As far as I'm concerned, this is comfortable weather compared to Haven, where I was freezing most of the time. But I got used to it, and it may take you a while to get used to Haven's weather once you've been out here for three months. But, I have a feeling you're dying to see my body without all of this, so, I'll do it just for you," Robin said, pointing at him seductively, and slipped into Justin's bedroom, and as she came out a while later, Justin started sweating like crazy.

"_Oh, my, god, she is sexy," _Justin thought.

"So, How do I look," Robin asked. She had on a tight-fitting red and black tank-top that showed off her slim body with a small "upper chest bulge" (yeah, she has small boobs), her nails had changed from crimson to black, she had black combat gloves, her usual spiked wristbands, tight-fitting black jeans, black, Goth-style combat boots, and her long, silky red and black hair, two front bangs gliding across her flawless face. Justin just mumbled incoherently.

"Huh?"

"Sexy."

"Thought so."

"Anyway, come on. Let's see if you can handle yourself out in the thick. Kleiver said he's got a job for us when we're done ranting," Justin said. Robin just looked at him like he had just completely forgotten about what had just happened.

Within a few minutes, Justin and Robin had arrived at the race garage, where Kleiver was standing by a large-looking vehicle.

"Damas has a Job for us, but I'm no babysitter, so STAY OUTTA MY WAY," Kleiver said.

"Justin's not afraid of you. Are you baby," Robin said.

"If you knew what was happening out there, lass, you'd be afraid, alright," Kleiver said, as Damas walked up to them, eying Kleiver suspiciously.

"What's going on here," he asked.

"Nothing, Your Lordship, just offering Justin, and the little Sheila here, some healthy advice," Kliever said, pointing to Robin, as Damas walked up to Justin and put his hand on his shoulder.

"You have a reputation for being rash," Damas started.

"Don't remind me," Justin said.

"Didn't your father ever teach you to pick my battles wisely?"

"Yeah, but I never listened to him. And I paid for it a lot."

"My point is, sometimes you hit your enemy head on, and sometimes, you wait until his weakness is revealed. Patience is a warrior's greatest weapon. Do you understand," he asked, Justin shaking his head "yes". Damas then turned to see Robin standing there. "And, who is this? Another life to save? I...have never seen you around. I take it you are new here," Damas said.

"Yeah, as in about two hours new. Another reject by Mr. Holy monk, Veger. This time it's for helping a convicted criminal, Justin. He calls it high treason. Now I'm out here for life, but Justin says he's gonna sneak me in when his time is up," Robin said.

"Ah, a risky move. I like guts like that out here. It shows that you can take anything. What is your name, little one," Damas asked.

"Robin," she answered.

"So, you're the girl Justin is always talking about. You seem very fit for him. You look like you can handle yourself out in the wasteland. I'll give you your first mission now, along with Justin. Guys, I want you and Kleiver to go out into the desert and heard a bunch of leaper lizards into a waiting transport. I need all the resources we can gather. We must prepare for what lies ahead. And Robin, I'm sure that Justin can teach you some combat basics along the way," Damas said.

Robin and Justin started to leave, but Kleiver briefly put his staff in front of the couple and said: "See ya around, chums. Heh, heh," and walked off.

After getting in the Sand Shark and leaving, Justin got a little curious about Robin's past.

"So, Robin, what was it like living out here?"

"Harsh compared to a city. You pretty much have to fend for yourself after you're old enough to survive. My parents had taken the thrown when I was 5, and because they couldn't watch after me, I had been sent with my grandparents to Spargus. The only thing I've heard is that the village has had a lot of marauder problems. They've attacked several times, and I still wonder if my parents are still alive. I had moved to Haven when I was 12 with my grandfather after my grandma died of heat stroke. He found a good-paying job and was able to support me in school up to about the end of 9th grade, and soon after he had developed serious health problems and couldn't work. I joined the KG at 15 so I could help pay for our needs. The sad thing is that we had raised enough for him to get into the hospital. He was diagnosed with a terminal disease that he had picked up from chemicals from the factory that he was working at. He was only given a short four months to live. He died just when I was at the peak of my scholarship. He didn't leave behind much, so I could only help myself for a while. When the KG was turned into the FG, they were kind enough to let me finish my 10th grade year at the school, and they said that they'd help me pay for it the rest of the year. After that, I haven't been to school. I could go to college after I turn 18, but I still don't know if I could pay for it."

"I could help you," Justin said.

"You're 20! when I get into college, you'll be too old!"

"I hear about people that are in their first year in college and are, like, 30."

"They must not have cared for it that much."

"Yeah," Justin said.

There was a long silence as Justin drove through the sand, and as they neared their target, Robin suddenly asked: "Justin?"

"Huh?"

"When we get back to Haven, would you...go out with me?"

"I guess, if Veger hasn't tried to kill us by then," Justin said.

"Thanks," She said, and hugged him slightly. Justin turned into an open area and arrived at a strange-looking steel corral.

"Well, we're here, and there's fatty over there," Justin said, pointing in the distance to Kleiver, who was trying ever so desperately to get a lizard into the corral. He was failing miserably, because he just ended up steering the lizard into the cactus patches, killing it. And then going on a raging hunt for another, but still doing the same thing.

"Having trouble, Kleiver," Justin asked.

"I'd like to see you do better," he responded.

"I'll take that as a challenge," Justin said.

"Fine then. You get three in before me, and I'll give you another one of my vehicles."

"And lose?"

"We'll see when it comes to that," Kleiver said.

"_Hah, me lose to that tub of jelly? Right," _Jusitn thought.

After riding three in a few minutes later, Justin triumphantly walked out of the corral, Kleiver having given up long before he got the first one in.

"Nice job, nipper," Kleiver said. "Have another one of me vehicles, ya earned it."

"Damn straight. Would it be too much to ask for a foot rub," Justin asked, Kleiver growling in response. "Didn't think so."

As Kleiver left in the Sand Shark, Justin walked over to the large vehicle, and read "Dune hopper" on the panel. Justin helped Robin into the passenger seat and climbed up to the driver's side and strapped in.

"Heh, high-rider. Sweet," he said, and saw a button labeled "launch jump". He pressed it, and the vehicle launched up about twenty feet in the air, Robin screaming as it went up and down. "Cool, super-hop. So, Robin, anyplace interesting out here we can go to?"

"Well, the precursor temple on the far southeastern side of the desert, but I haven't been there in ages, but if you've already met one of the monks, It's a sign that we probably wouldn't be welcome there," she answered.

"Yeah, the whole "Dark Eco contaminating the halls" talk. Ah, we can handle it. I get at that we need this thing to get over there," Justin said, patting the dashboard of the Dune Hopper.

"Well, I always took an air train there, so I don't know exactly, there's a whole load of little Isles, and, I guess we could hp across," She said.

"Well, what are we waiting for? To the Temple," Justin yelled, pointing in the direction of the temple, gunning the gas peddle.

(insert cartoony screen transition)

Jusitn arrived at the temple, getting out and walking through the doors, entering a huge holding chamber, Robin following closely behind. Justin looked over and saw a huge eye thing floating above a floor of holes, and a door.

"That must be our way in," he said, and went to approach it. "Uh excuse me, Mr. eye thing, we'd like to get through, so..." he started, but when he got close enough, the eye turned into a slit and spikes came out of the floor. "Holy...crap. Robin, we can't get in this way," Justin yelled, and saw a strange-looking idol in the wall. He ignored it, and then saw a bunch of platforms and cloths lining another wall. He and Robin walked up to it, Justin analyzing it. "This reminds me of the time I went wall climbing with my friend Paul in 8th grade. Didn't end to well. I get major bruises on my knees and he almost slipped off of the wall. We got to the top eventually."

"Uh, OK. So, how are we gonna get in," Robin asked.

"These platforms go up to the top of this wall, and possibly to a roof. Maybe there's a secret entrance up there. Wait here, I'll go up," Justin said.

"You could fall and die," Robin said.

"I'll take my chances," he answered. "Here, take this com so that we can keep in touch," he continued, handing a com to Robin.

After about 10 minutes of climbing, he finally arrived at the top of the temple, scanning the sights. He pulled out his com and talked to robin from the top. "Robin, you there?"

"Yeah, what'd you find," she asked.

"No secret passages, but I did find some kind of glider. I met one of the monks earlier, and she said that she had lost an expedition of Monks at the Great Volcano," Justin said.

"Yeah, I wouldn't blame her. That volcano's a real danger spot."

"They must've built these gliders to reach the top. I can see the entrance from here. Also a bunch of accelerator rings. If I can go through all of the rings, I could be able to get to the Volcano."

"Yeah, 'lost' being the key word. If they "vanished", don't you think that was a sign? Hello? Justin, I love you, and I don't want you to burn alive in that place. So do me and do yourself a favor and stay away from it," Robin said.

"I can handle myself. I was away in the port for a month, and I still survived. I've survived here in the wasteland so far, and nothing bad has happened to me. I'll be fine," Justin said, and picked up the glider. "_I hope,_" he thought, and leaped off of the cliff and out into the distance...

**And, que divider. Part two coming soon. Review!**


	9. The Precursor Temple

**Here's Chapter 9, after a while of waiting, and accidentally deleting the first format of it.**

Chapter 9: The Precursor Temple

Justin hit the last accelerator ring and swooped down into a hole in the volcano wall, the glider smashing into some rafters and breaking, Justin landing perfectly safe on the ground.

"Robin, you there? I'm in," Justin said into his com.

"Yeah. What do you see," She asked.

"Well, I see a purple idol, another one of those eye things, and a small clearing. And, the glider's busted, so I can't go back that way. I might as well just search around until I find another way out."

"Well, just be careful. If those monks never returned, there's probably a good reason why."

"Yeah. Be with you when I find a way out of here," he said, and closed his com.

He then took out the scatter gun and went ahead to the clearing. "_well, better start here,"_ he thought, and went a bit in and hopped up onto a ledge and pulled himself up, when suddenly Metal Heads popped out of nowhere. They looked like over-sized scorpions, long stinger tails and a hard plate body with about four legs on each side. One lunged at Justin, but he jumped back and shot the group with the scatter gun, taking them all out in one hit. Then, a yellow thing popped out of it's head. It looked like a gem, and thinking it may make some money, he picked them up and put them in his backpack.

He then continued down to a long, winding path where more Metal-Heads jumped out. These looked like huge mantises, and they were jumping and flipping around, making it harder to get a lock on them. Thanks to the scatter gun's range of fire, he was able to get them down easily. Not a few steps after that encounter, another one popped out: this time it looked like a huge flying insect of some sort, chucking dark energy balls out of it's tail. Justin switched to the blaster and got rid of them, and with about three hits, it went down.

Collecting the gems, he wandered around, using the scatter/blaster combo to take out all of the Metal Heads. After walking a little farther, he could see something on the other side of a small gap between two cliffs. He went to go inspect it, but as he stepped up, the ground started crumbling underneath him, forcing him to either jump forward or back. He jumped forward, landing on more collapsible ground, and jumped safely to the other side. After a sigh of relief, he then saw the certain something: a leaper lizard.

"_Ooooh, that little lizard will be of good use. My feet hurt anyway,"_ Justin said, and went to get on the leaper, but as he neared it, it darted off down a path and to an area filled with rolling spiky creatures and more metal heads. Justin chased it down the path, taking out everything with the scatter gun and watching out for more collapsing ground, and soon had it cornered. He jumped on it's back, and after a little cartoony rodeo riding, got it under control, and proceeded up a ledge to the first challenge: A gap between two ground sections with a crater spitting out a huge magma-ball. After some timing, he got across to the other side, and then came fact-to face with a rising pillar across a large gap over a bed of lava with another huge magma ball coming out of one of the craters. With a bit of analysis and timing, Justin made it safely to the top of the pillar, and continued across 3 more and back to solid ground, dismounting the leaper and taking out the rest of the spiked creatures with the scatter gun.

Farther down the path, and a few more cliffs and leaps later, he came to his next obstacle: a huge, towering slab of rock over a 30-foot gap across a river of lava, more climbing ground on the other side. He pondered for a few minutes before spotting something resting over by a tree. Justin found what looked to be some sort of grapple cable, and attacking it to the morph-gun, he made some sort of grapple gun. He then got an idea, and took aim at the rock, launched the cable, and as soon as the claw went into the rock, hit the retract button, the cable slowly dragging the rock with it, until it came crashing down to form a bridge over the lava. Justing put the attachment in his pack, knowing it would come in handy later, and crossed the makeshift bridge.

A bit more walking and fighting, and Justin soon spotted what looked to be a crater spitting out air, and a huge stone slab on the floor. He thought for a minute and realized that there was a ledge at the top of where the air was going, and then pushed the rock onto the crater, forming some kind of makeshift elevator. He got on top of the slab, and soon rose up to where he could jump onto more ground and after walking more, spotted another crater of air, but with no stone visible. He scanned the area, and soon found one on another cliff, the ledge to high for him to grab. Remembering the grapple cable he found, he equipped it, and fired the cable at the rock and pulled it down. He then pulled it down and moved it over to the crater, getting up to the top.

A bit later, and he found 3 more of the same, only the middle already had a rock but it wasn't moving, and the two beside it didn't have any rock. There were two rocks, however, facing the other section. After taking out the stingers with the scatter gun, he soon had kicked and pushed both of the slabs onto their respective crater, the middle now getting all the steam channeled to it, creating another elevator. Justin then got onto it, and jumping onto a few stair-like ground sections, and after walking up a winding cliff, saw a ladder across a huge gap of lava with stone platforms in it. Getting onto one of the platforms, he rode it up to the ladder and jumped onto it, climbing up to see a petrified-in-stone monk holding a strange purple Idol of some sort.

"Hm, looks like it didn't agree with him," Justin said, pulling out his com. "Robin, I found something."

"What? A way into the temple, I hope," she asked.

"No. Here, you should take a look," Justin responded, hitting the "capture" button on the com and taking a picture, sending it to Robin's com.

"Oh, my god," she said.

"Yeah, that's terrible. That statue looks a little suspicious. I'm gonna go get a closer look it."

"And wind up like that guy? Are you crazy?"

"No, I'll be fine. Relax, I know what I'm doing," Justin said, leaving the com open on the ground and walking over to it, trying to pull the idol out. "Agh, damn it, let go, dead guy," he yelled, and then a crumble was heard, and as Justin looked it over, it started glowing and zapped him, making him disappear. "HOLY SHIT," he screamed, dropping the Idol, which shattered to pieces, Robin hearing all of this, as Justin became visible again.

"Justin, what happened? Are you OK," she yelled over the communicator.

"Yeah," he said, picking the com up. "That Idol had Dark Eco in it. The Eco in my body must've interacted with the Idol, and...turned me...invisible..." Justin trailed off, and soon had an idea. "That's it!"

"What's it," Robin asked.

"That idol is how we get into the temple. Is there one where you're at?"

"Yeah."

"So, since both of us can channel the stuff, we can use the idol and sneak around the eye, and get in."

"And just how are you going to get back?"

"Remember when I said that I saw one if the idols back where I started? Well, that eye's guarding a warp gate. I can get through that way."

"Yeah, and there's a warp gate in here so...I see. OK, see ya when you get here! I got a hug ready."

"OK..." Justing said, and closed the com. He then went to the edge to look for a way back, and saw a path up the river just by where the rocks were going off a cliff. He jumped down and prepared for the leap of faith, and landed on the ground and followed the path back to the area with the eye, taking out the remaining Metal Heads. He then used the idol, and sneaked right under the eye and through the gate.

(Back at the Temple Entrance)

Robin was eagerly awaiting Justin's return, when she then saw him jump through the warp gate and overly-climatically celebrated. Robin ran up to him and tackle-hugged him to the ground.

"Agh, OK, I'm glad too see you too," he said. "Please get off me."

"OK," she said and released him. "So, how do we get in again?"

"We find the dark idol and turn invisible, sneaking into the temple."

"OK," Robin said, as the two went up to it and touched it, the Dark Eco turning them invisible, then they casually walked right under the eye, the doors opening and the eye disappearing, the two turning visible again.

"That was easy," Robin said.

"Now, we go exploring," Justin said, and as the two walked down, small spiders suddenly started heading towards them. Justin took out his scatter gun and blasted all of them, and soon came to a room with a dark eco vent.

"Hey, Robin, what's this thing," Justin asked.

"That's an eco vent. It's said to be able to channel an unlimited source of eco out of the ground it's in," Robin responded, as Justin stuck his hand in and out of the light for a while, and then stepped on the stone vent, and suddenly felt the onrush of Dark Eco enter his body, turning him dark temporarily.

"**Well, that was interesting. So, I guess I'm stuck like this for a while,"** Dark Justin said.

"Yeah, I guess so. Maybe I can try that, too," Robin said, and stepped in the vent and within a few seconds, was also turned into the same creature Justin was.

"**Wow, this is cool," **Dark Robin said. "**I feel so...comfortable like this, so...wild. I feel like an animal,"** she continued, looking at Dark Justin, and felt her body start to heat up.

"**You OK," **Dark Justin asked.

"**Yeah, I'm...fine...OH, GOD, COME HERE, DARKY,"** she screamed, pouncing on Justin and kissing him wildly, the two falling to the ground and making out like the animals that they were. After doing so for about a half hour, the dark transformation wore off, and they realized what they were doing and got off of each other, blushing heavily.

"Wow, that was...sudden," Justin said.

"I guess I got a little carried away there," Robin said.

There was a long silence before Justin shook his head and said: "Anyway, come on, we still have a temple to explore."

"Right," Robin responded, and followed him down a small hallway to a large, circular room with two doors, and a circle of security bots around a stair-like center. There was also another idol there, too.

"I've read about this type of security," Robin said. "They say that if one bot is even touched, or detects an intruder, the rest will activate and zap the intruder good and dead."

"Well, there's another idol over there, and that center looks suspicious," Justin responded. "Let's sneak over there," he continued, and after turning invisible, walked between the robots and soon found a floor switch. He stomped on it, and soon the floor where he was sunk into the ground, a door opening right in front of him. He suddenly turned visible, and stopped, because he was right in the middle of about ten robots that could kill him. Thinking about how he was going to get out of this, he realized he would have to destroy all of them at once. The only question was: How? He then remembered the wave concussor he got a while back, and equipped that, and with one full charge, released the trigger and destroyed all of the bots in one shot.

"Take that, monks," he whispered, and soon he and Robin were back down another hallway, taking out more spiders with the scatter gun, and after entering the next room, fences started shooting up, forming a maze of some sort.

Justin and Robin walked around to the first section, with three poles going up and down, another eye hovering above the end of the gap, and another idol. As a test, Justin picked up one of the bodies of the dead spiders and chucked it at one of the poles, and as he did so, the eye turned big and electricity surrounded the pole, zapping the already dead body of the spider, where it fell into the bottomless pit.

"Whoa," Justin said.

"Yeah," Robin said.

"Time to go invisible. Robin, wait here, I'll go around and see if there's a switch to drop the fences so you don't have to go through this. If there's none, then you'll need to do what I do."

"But...I'm not that athletic, and again, what if you suddenly go visible while you're still swinging on a pole," Robin said.

"I'll be fine. The Idol should give me enough time to get across without reverting. I'll be right back," Justin said, and turned invisible and grabbed the first pole, and swung across all three, and landed back on the other side, the eye deactivating.

"Wow, I guess you can just cross now," Justin said, and Robin did so, and landed safely on the other side. The two repeated the process for the rest of the sets, and afterwards made it to the other side of the room, the fences going back down.

Justin realized he was running low on ammo for the scatter gun, and rifle-butted a few pots, and cleverly enough, there was some ammo inside.

"Heh, common items inside priceless objects. Nice job, Seem," Justin said.

After moving through the last hall and taking out the spiders, Justin and Robin soon came to a room with a huge precursor statue and then spotted Veger and Seem in the distance, the two hiding behind a wall and listening in on the conversation:

"I want no excuses," Veger ranted. "You said this could be done, now make it so!"

"But we have such little time," Seem explained. "The daystar approaches, you know what it brings!"

"Unfortunately, yes. But we will deal with that once I have full access to the catacombs," Veger ranted again. "Just keep up your end of the bargain, and I'll deal with those idiots in Haven. I promise, you WILL meet your makers," he continued, and soon left, Seem leaving also.

"Why are the catacombs so important," Justin asked.

"I don't know, but if Veger and Seem are all in a hissy about it, then it's gotta be important," Robin responded, the two coming back out from behind the wall, Justin walking up to the statue.

"Hey, Robin, come here, another one of those weird precursor statues," Justin said, and suddenly the oracle's eyes opened, flashing a blue light as it spoke:

"**_Greetings, young warrior."_**

"Wait, you again! You're the voice from the pillar things in the forest," Justin said.

"**_Yes, it is me again. The skills you have demonstrated so far have brought us great hope. This planet's future is at a critical juncture, The Dark Ones have found your world again, and fate hands in the balance where the past and the future collide."_**

"Do you have any idea what he just said," Justin asked Robin, who just shrugged. "Speak-a-da-normal-language, OK!"

"**_Excuse me, young one,"_** the oracle said sarcastically.**_ "You will need all the power you can muster to survive this terrible test."_**

"I can handle it," Justin said.

"**_Very well. Look into the light and receive a power, brave soldier,"_** the oracle responded, and soon Justin was lifted off the ground in a bright light.

"Ok, now you're scaring me," Robin said, as Justin landed back on the ground a few seconds later.

"Robin...the dark eco feels...far away...I feel better," He responded.

"So, no more animal outbreaks," she said.

"I hope not," Justin said. "Come on, let's get back to Spargus," Justin said, and the two then went through the warp gate and exited the temple, getting into the dune hopper, and as they left, Robin began to feel uneasy.

"Hey, you OK," Justin asked.

"No. I always get like this when bad weather's about to hit. A sandstorm, to be exact."

"Then we'd better hurry,"Justin said, and sped through the sands at top speed and back to Spargus...


	10. To the Rescue

**Well, after a bit of waiting, and the need to write again, here's Chapter 10. I did this in about an hour, so please excuse the sloppyness. I kinda wanna finish this fic up so I can have some more time to work on my original stuff, and get a few new ones/ sequals ready. Also, I am considering whether or not to get a Live Journal. I always have some kind of funny news story, so I want that to be one of it. I need suggestions before I do, because the chick that hates me has one, and I want to show her that I didn't just do it becasue she did. So, leave me suggestions in the review, and an overdue thank you to AJMS for sticking with me throughout this, as well as all other reviewers. And, speaking of AJMS, if you like this story, go check out her "Nova Artra Armageddon" (sorry if it's spelled wrong), composed of "Jak: Revelations, Jak:Retaliation, and "Jak:Retrebution", all good reads. Now, on with Chapter 10!**

**I don't own anything except Robin, Justin, and this fic.**

Chapter 10: To the Rescue

Justin and Robin had soon arrived back at Spargus, and walked to Damas's palace for their next mission, only to see him scrambling about for the intercom.

"Attention all Citizens of Spargus," he announced when he found it. "Our radars have detected a large sandstorm headed directly for us! Prepare the city!"

"Looks like you were right, Robin," Justin said, as Damas turned to see the two standing there.

"Justin, I'm glad you're here. There are four of our wastelanders out in the desert who still have not come back. I fear that they may be in danger, so I want you to go out and find them, and take them to a waiting transport."

"No problem," Justin said, as the two turned to leave, Damas stopped Robin short.

"The sands are too dangerous. He must go alone," Damas said.

"But..."

"No buts. He can handle himself. I've seen it."

"OK," she answered, as Justin rode the elevator down and headed to the vehicle garage, jumping into the sand shark and back out into the desert, where the clouds were thickening up.

"Man, that's bad. Well, gotta start somewhere," he said, and spotted the first of the four on his radar. He drove to the area, picking up the stranded fighter.

"Thank the precursors you're here! Get me to the transport," he yelled, and Justin sped up and soon skidded in front of a large, black tank, the man getting out. "Thanks, I'll put a good word in with Damas," he said, climbing in.

"Yeah. 1 down, three to go," Justin said to himself, heading off to the next wastelander.

As Justin skidded to a halt near the final wastelander's location, he saw him lying motionless in the sand. A quick hand to his pulse showed that he was dead, and also had a Dark Eco crystal in his hands. Justin shook his head in remorse, picking up the Dark Crystal and pulling out his com.

"Damas, You there?"

"Yes."

"It's me. I'm afraid I didn't get to one of your men in time. He's dead," Justin said.

"Oh. Leave his body there, and I'll send the carrier over to get it. He will receive a proper burial," Damas responded. "You need to hurry back, Justin. The storm's on the edge of the desert, and closing fast."

"Gotcha. Be right back," Justin said, but as he turned to leave, he heard something turn on behind him, and gasped at what it was: one of the same dark satellites he had seen when he first met Seem.

"Ah, Shit," He muttered, and took a mad dash toward his vehicle, in which was surrounded by a dark energy field. "Double Shit." He then turned around, and pulled out his blaster, and confronted it.

The satellite started by hovering over Justin, and seeing as how he couldn't outrun it, the thing then surrounded him with electricity beams. Justin waited for the beams to disappear, and lunged out of it's way, as it pummeled the ground, releasing some kind of energy wave. Then took out a tentacle and swooped it along the ground in a circular formation. Justin saw that the shield was down, so he began firing on it with the blaster and jumping over the tentacle before it had soon started to smoke, and popped on the shield again, and began it's beam maneuver again.

Justin this time rolled out of it's way, before it had a chance to get under him, and also rolled out if the radius of the electric beams. It then plunged into the ground again, this time spitting out two energy waves, and took out two tentacles. Justin hopped over the sweeping tentacles and began shooting at the thing again while it's shields were down.

Soon it was pouring out smoke badly and was also partially on fire. It got up, put on the shield, and once again, tried the electricity maneuver, Justin dodging it once again. It then smashed into the ground, releasing three shock waves, and put out three tentacles as a last resort. Justin timed every jump and soon enough, hit it for the last time, the thing squabbling up to the ground, a purple light glowing on top of it, and soon after it exploded into several pieces.

Justin realized how bad the storm was now, and thankfully, his Sand Shark was unshielded. He hopped in it and made a mad dash for the city entrance, just barely making it in by mere seconds.

"Yes," he whispered, and went back to the palace, where Damas and Robin were locked in a conversation.

"So, that's my story," Robin finished.

"Very interesting. I had no idea that there was a village like that out here," Damas responded.

"Hey guys, I'm back!"

"Justin! Oh boy, I'm soooo glad you're safe," Robin yelled, and tackle-hugged him to the ground.

"Gah, yeah, just, ow," Justin muttered.

"You had me worried for a bit, Justin," Damas said. "What caused you to be so late?"

"God damn dark satellite ambushed me."

"What," Robin asked. "You took it out by yourself?"

"It wasn't easy, but yes."

"Well, at least you're safe."

"And, I found another Dark Eco crystal," Justin said, pulling out the said retrieved crystal from his pocket. "That guy I found dead had it on him."

"Oooo, lemme see," Robin asked childishly, and grabbed it from Justin's hands, cradling it against her face.

"Uh, why are you cuddling it," Justin asked.

"Because, I used to mine for these all the time back in my village. I loved how they felt against me, and I loved the feeling you got when you crack it open and the Dark Eco inside it flows in you."

"I highly doubt that we'd need to crack it open to get at the Eco."

"Well, you try it for yourself," Robin said, handing it to Justin.

"OK," he said, and put both his had and Robin's hand onto the Eco crystal, and concentrated, as the Dark Eco inside of it slowly began to flow into their bodies. Something new suddenly entered both of their minds: a new power. Confused, Justin followed what he was thinking, and turned Dark, and punched forward with his hand, and into a jumping uppercut, and suddenly found himself spinning in some kind of Dark vortex, and held out his hands, as dark electricity was soon jutting from his body and claws, and also a bunch of pots and vases, along with Damas and Robin, were lifted high into the air, the pots breaking apart, and soon after Justin stopped in a small release of a dark energy, and fell back to the ground, as did Robin and Damas.

"Oh, god, are you guys alright," Justin called, running over to the shocked duo.

"Yeah, I'm good," Robin said.

"Likewise," Damas replied. "You should probably be careful of how you use that power, Justin."

"Duh."

"Man of few words. Now leave. I have destroyed pottery to clean up," Damas said, as the two departed down the elevator.

"So, Robin, it's still technically day out, about eight, so, what do you wanna do?"

"I don't know...wanna just, walk around?"

"Sure. How about out by the beach," Justin asked.

"That sounds so romantic. Sure," Robin responded, as she suddenly tightly gripped her hand in his and walked towards the waterfront.

Not too far down the walkway, Justin spotted ol' tubby standing in front of a huge white thing with a lader, possible a lookout point.

"Hey, look, there's fatty," Justin pointed out.

"Wanna go see what he wants," Robin asked.

"I guess, I don't have nothing better to do," Justin responded, as the two walked up to him.

"Hey there, stuffed crust," Justin said, in which Kleiver didn't seem to be affected by Justin's comment.

"Isn't it about time for you ankle-biter's naps? He, he," he joked.

"Oh, you're a riot," Robin said. "What the heck is that," she asked, pointing to the large, whatever.

"That gun turret used to be the only thing that stood between us, and the desert's cruel kiss," Kleiver ranted, as Justin mouthed "gun turret" in a happy expression, in which Robin smiled. "I used to be the tall poppy in that baby. Wanna try to beat me score," he asked.

"Oh, don't worry, I "beat" things all the time. Right, Robin," Justin joked, nudging Robin in her side softly with his elbow, as she just playfully smacked him in the back of his head. "What?"

"Just go kill tubby's score so we can go," she responded.

"Will do," Justin said, climbing up the ladder to take his seat in the turret.

About ten minutes later, he climbed back out, triumphant in his score-beating.

"So, ya walloped me score, nipper," Kleiver said. "Very well, then, law of the land says that the top gunner holds a special trophy," he said, pulling out a Light Eco crystal. "This crystal's yours for now, but I'll be getting it back soon enough," Kleiver said, tossing it to Justin and walking off.

"Sweet," he said, putting it in his backpack. "Well, I'm getting sleepy, Robin, let's head back to my room."

"You mean...you're letting me stay with you?"

"Yeah, and after all, you ARE my girlfriend," Justin said.

"(giggles) OK, you're the boss," Robin said, following him to his quarters.

"Well, you go get...whatever you need to get ready for bed, and I'll be in the bedroom," Justin said, as Robin went to her suitcase, and pulled out a few items of clothing, and hopped in the shower.

Justin gathered his items for the shower, and waited outside. The bedroom was not very luxurious, but not that bad, either. Like a hotel room: queen-sized bed with a few changes of sheets/bedding, a built-in bathroom with fully-functional toilet and bathtub, shower hose, clean, marble sink with very-neat and adequate plumbing, a small, 16" TV with satellite, and a good-sized, wooden dresser drawer for clothing. Throw in a small table with a reading lamp, phone book, an old-style telephone (about 90's old), and your usual items, and that's about it.

The door had opened about 30 or 40 minutes later, revealing a wet, toweled-at-the-top-breast-line, and very sexy Robin.

"Your turn, baby," she said almost seductively, as Justin uneasily walked in, and was out and dressed in his usual under-armor t, and a pair of lightweight blue jeans. He then spotted Robin by the table, brushing her hair, still in that black towel of hers.

"Hey," he said to her. "You gonna put anything on for bed?"

"You're letting me sleep with you?"

"See anywhere else to sleep around here? Besides, the bed's real comfortable."

"He, well, this is all I usually sleep in," Robin said, and slipped off her towel seductively to reveal a small black bra and panties. Justin's face started to turn red as she walked over and hugged him close.

"Well, then, let's get in," he said, crawling in, but Robin stopped him.

"Wait," she said, pulling off his shirt to reveal his small, smooth, muscular chest. "Now we can get in."

"Uh, OK," he said nervously, as the two crawled into the queen bed.

"Night, Justin," Robin said, kissing him in the cheek and snuggling her head into his chest.

"Night," he whispered, and also fell asleep...

**Yeah, throw in a little bed scene there. I'll take the reviews now.**


	11. Mr Fluffles?

**Well, here's Chapter 11. The title implies a little joke I used towards the end.**

Chapter 11: Mr. Fluffles?

Justin woke up the next morning in a groggy state. He looked down, and at first, blushed hard to see Robin sleeping on top of him, partially naked (bra/panties naked). He couldn't quite figure out why at first, but then he remembered what happened the other day. Robin had came to his door early yesterday afternoon, and said Veger had thrown her out. Justin growled quietly at Veger's name. He then remembered everything that had happened up to this point.

Justin was about to get up, and shove Robin off of him, when all of a sudden he felt her shift slightly. He sighed and gazed back down at the beautiful girl on top of him. Her hair was out of it's usual ponytail and flowing freely down her back and neck. Justin put a hand to her back, and although it was a bit cold, her skin felt real smooth. He stroked her body for a few minutes before looking at the clock, seeing that it was about 10 am. Justin yawned and then touched his had to robin's face and stroked it, trying to wake her up. She cringed slightly, allowing her eyes to flutter open, the vibrant green orbs soon finding their way to Justin's face.

"Hey," she whispered softly, kissing him on the cheek.

"Heh, morning, Robin," he said. He was never really one to talk when he first got up. "It's 10.00," Justin said to Robin after a bit of silence.

Robin glanced at the clock and gasped. She usually never slept in THIS early. "Oh, wow, guess we really slept in today, huh," she said, playfully touching her hand to Justin's chest and stroking it.

"Yeah. You hungry, babe," he asked.

"Hm, sure, I guess," She said. Justin was getting up to get to the kitchen, when Robin called: "You gonna put on a shirt or something, first?"

Justin looked down and blushed when he say that he was, indeed, bare-chested. He quickly went to the drawer and pulled out a black T and threw it on messily before running into the kitchen.

The two ate breakfast quietly, Justin's meal of choice being a stack of pancakes made from some provided mix, and some meat also provided. As they settled down in his "living room", a knock was heard at the door.

"Whaddya want," Justin asked, seeing a girl about Robin's height with blond hair with a small note.

"Are you, Justin," she asked.

"Yes."

"The king has requested your presence in the arena for your final qualification battle."

"Tell him I'll be there in a few minutes. I need to "prepare"," Justin said. The girl left, and Justin returned to the couch.

"Who was that?"

"Messenger chick. She says Damas wants me in the arena."

"Well, you'd better go. Don't wanna get him angry," Robin said. Justin armed himself up, and took Robin's hand, and the two proceeded to the arena.

As the two entered, and stood on the reward podium, Justin found another gun mod awaiting him. He read "plasmite RPG" on the side and equipped it, the barrel now in scatter gun form with a giant barrel with six holes in it.

"Greetings, brave fighters," Pecker began, putting his wing over Damas's mouth, as if to say "I've got it handled". "The one, the only, his greatest highness of all highnesses, the magnificent, unruly..."

"Enough, just get on with it," Damas said in an aggravated way.

"Sorry. I got...carried away. Did I mention how fabulous your hair looks?"

"PECKER!"

"Sorry. Another round of games has been called. This is combat...to the DEATH. Good luck, and may the best man win."

"What about..." Justin started.

"Robin will be safe up here with us," Damas said.

"I can't go down there with him?"

"It is Justin's time, not yours. If he wins this, we'll set up a fight for you," Damas said.

"As long as I get to crunch more heads again," Justin said, taking the platform elevator down to the battle arena. As the battle started, the arena was in the form of a box with a plus inside it. As the "lava" alarm sounded, a platform emerged from the lava in each empty space. Justin continued fighting all of the gladiators, and when the alarm sounded, he high-tailed it on to one of the platforms, which also yielded a weapon ammo crate. He waited until the lava sunk and the arena floors came back into view before leaping off of the platform.

As Justin continued fighting, however, one of the laser bullets from one of the gladiator's guns hit him straight across his right shoulder, leaving a huge, bleeding gash. Robin gasped from the stands, and she felt tears start to form in her eyes. However, what happened next was something even the Goth couldn't understand: as his hand rested on the wound, his hand somehow started to glow a light blue-white combo. He felt a small pain enter it, but soon it disappeared, and when he took his hand off, the wound was gone. Everyone in the arena, including the gladiators, just stared at him quizzically. His only response was raising an eyebrow of his own. He then remembered what happened back in the temple: the oracle must've given him some kind of healing power. He smiled triumphantly, and fired on one of the gladiators to resume the battle.

When all of the gladiators where defeated, Justin was creeping around one of the boxy-platform things, and when he jumped out, he was face to face with a tall, dark-skinned man, much stronger than he was, clad in armor that looked like the bones of Metal Heads. Justin thought he would begin to like this guy.

"And you are," Jusitn asked.

"Name's Sig, cherry. I'm the top gladiator in this here arena. Anyone who wants to win that third amulet has to go through me to do so. Looks like you're my next challenger," he said.

"That I am. So, Sig, where'd you get all of that armor?"

"Long story, I...wait, what are you doing? Come on, boy, let's finish this."

"I usually have a reason to kill someone if I'm going to."

"If we don't, he'll kill us both," Sig stated, jerking his head up to Damas, who was eagerly awaiting the two to crunch heads. "Sorry, kid, nothing personal," Sig said, raising his peacemaker.

"Nice gun," was Justin's only response, holding up his blaster.

"Like it? First weapon I've ever had, and still faithful to this day. Peacemaker's slaughtered tons of gladiators in it's time, as well as swarms of Metal Heads."

"So, you hate metal heads, huh."

"Yep. Can't stand 'em," Sig responded.

"Shame, I hate em, too. We could've been good partners."

"I can't trust a newbie right off the bat. You gotta be able to prove to me that you're actually worth my time and not dead wight like most of the people I've faced."

(up in Damas' throne)

Damas and Robin had been listening to the two gladiators' conversation for a while, Damas beginning to get really impatient.

"_What are they doing? Shut up and start fighting,"_ he thought.

(back on the arena floor)

"Well, why don't I start proving myself right now," Justin said, Sig giving Damas a thumbs up.

Damas nodded, and hit a button on his the arm of his chair, pulling up two separate platforms on either side of the award podium. Justin and Sig jumped on to one of them, as Damas pressed another button, and the arena sunk back into the lava, and re-emerged as something that looked like a large paintball arena. Lots of boxes, walls, and places to duck behind, a very strategic environment.

The two warriors stepped into the arena, and took their positions on one side of the arena. In the center of the arena was a large table with two wristband-like items on it, and a speaker.

"What's all this stuff for," Justin asked.

"You'll know in a few minutes," Sig said.

"Brave fighters," Damas announced through the speaker. "This challenge will be one of extreme skill and determination. If you'll place these metal armbands on either one of your arms, we shall get started," he said. The two warriors agreed, and followed the orders. A large screen behind them soon came to life, with both fighter's names on it, and numbers underneath it.

"Let me explain this setup to our newcomer. The wristband you are wearing constructs a special field around your body that will absorb any shot from an enemy's weapon that hits you. That shot is converted into life points, and you start with 5000 LP. The closer the shot, the more points, and also where you are hit takes off different LP numbers, like in real life. You will be able to feel the shot for a brief second, but it won't harm you. When all of your LP is gone, the field will disappear, letting the opponent take the final death shot. This is literally a battle for survival. Good luck to both of you. Get behind anything, and wait for my signal," he finished.

Justin and Sig took their positions behind a random box/wall/whatever, awaiting the start. "Ready," Damas said. "Set...FIGHT!"

Justin jumped out of the gate first, rolling out of his cover to put in some suppressive shots at Sig's cover spot. As Sig's head poked out, Justin swiftly moved his fire on to the big guy's noggin. Sig quickly ducked his head back behind his cover, trying to find a way around Justin's fire.

"_Damn newbies always try to fire first, empty all of their ammo if the first few seconds. That's how you get them. But Justin's not actually trying to hit me, more like keep me pinned, so I can't move anywhere. That gives him time to think of a strategy. But that also gives me time to think of something, too," _Sig thought to himself. "I could wait 'till his ammo's gone, but that'd be a bit too easy. Or, I just have to get in one shot with a charged up peacemaker," Sig said quietly.

Justin knew that his blaster wasn't doing so well in providing enough fire, so he went to switch to the vulcan fury. As he did so, though, he realized that all of the selections besides the blaster were locked on the display panel of his weapon.

"What the hell! Why can't I switch weapons," Justin yelled frantically.

"Rule of the game, Chili Pepper," Sig yelled back. "Only allowed one weapon for the entire game. So use that ammo wisely," Sig said, and went to take a shot at Justin, seeing as his guard was down. Justin saw the shot coming and rolled back behind a wall, narrowly avoiding damage.

"_Damn rules. Wait, what about upgrades? It's still the same weapon, so,"_ Justin thought, and went to switch to the Beam Reflexor, a weapon that he hadn't used in quite a while. Surprisingly, it actually worked, and Justin then got an idea in his head. He examined his surroundings carefully, from what he could see without exposing himself too much. He calculated a few good trajectories, and found one that worked, shooting it off into the back wall behind him.

"What the hell was that," Sig asked.

"Wait and see," Justin responded. Sig did so, and was amazed to see the bullet bounce off of the wall, and off of many more before colliding with it's target: his face.

"AAUUGGGHHH," he screamed, as the screen dropped his LP down significantly, now down to 4400.

Back in the throne booth, Robin, Damas, and Pecker had been watching the unfolding fight, and as the bullet collided with Sig's face, Robin smiled cheerfully as the tough warrior's LP went down.

Damas' mouth just hung open briefly, as Pecker began putting out commentary on the hit.

"Ooo, what a shot! The beam reflexor's special ability allows the bullet to bounce off of virtually any surface, dealing damage to anything it hits."

"You never told me that he had those upgrades!" Damas screamed at Pecker.

"How was I supposed to know?"

"Well why didn't she," Damas asked, turning to Robin.

"I didn't even know about this match!"

"That's it, you're off the case," Damas said.

"What case?"

"Damas, sir, calm down," one of the servants said from behind the curtain. "Remember what happened to Mr. Fluffles the last time you did something like that?"

"MR. FLUFFLES!!! NOOOOOOOOO!!!!" Damas screamed, running into the back room in a fit of rage.

"There he goes again," another servant said.

"It's a good thing the those two didn't see this," the other said, pointing to Justin and Sig, who were still locked in a battle.

(The Arena...)

"Nice shot there, Cherry," Sig said.

"You're commenting me for hitting you?"

"Good sportsmanship can add life to a battle," Sig responded. "Now, let me show you how a true wastelander handles a gun," he continued, and began to charge up his Peacemaker. Aiming very carefully, he saw a small part of Justin's head visible from above his cover. He released the trigger, hoping to hit the warrior upside the head. Justin saw it coming almost immediately and ducked his head out of the way of the blast. Although that didn't prevent the arch shot afterwards, taking Justin's LP down to about 4550. Justin grunted slightly, Robin covering her mouth with her hand up in the throne booth.

"He'll only feel it for a second," Pecker said.

After a long three hours of fighting, it seemed that both warriors were an equal match for each other, although Justin was at 160 about 50 LP under Sig's current score, 210. Justin knew he had to think of something quickly, or else it would mean the death of him, literally. He was also almost out of ammo, about 10 shots left. He knew that a single shot anywhere on Sig's body would take down almost all of his LP, and a shot from the beam reflexor, which he had been using most of the time, would take it down a lot. The thing is, the beam reflexor took down a shot for every successful bounce off of a wall, which meant that if he missed one shot, chances are he'd miss the other. Also, one more hit from Sig's P.M. would also mean defeat. Justin also saw the tough wastelander moving slowly up to his position.

Justin decided to go with the beam reflexor, and hoping to god that it would be a lucky hit. He saw the best route he could find, and fired one of the bullets, just when Sig was in his area. Justin walked out from behind the wall he was behind, gun in hand.

"This is it, Cherry," Sig said triumphantly. He raised his peacemaker, took aim, and Justin gulped dramatically. Sig was about to pull the trigger, when suddenly...a sharp pain entered his back. Sig turned to see that the Shot from Justin's gun had just hit his back, and his LP had dropped down to ten. Sig gasped inaudibly, giving Justin the perfect opportunity to deliver his final shot. With one hit from the blaster, Sig fell to the ground, his LP going down to 0.

Damas had just re-entered the throne booth to witness his prized gladiator fall.

"SIG!" he yelled, Robin smiling widely at her boyfriend's win.

(Arena)

"So, you beat me, Justin," Sig said. "I don't usually see that many defeats. Now, it's your shot. You're the big star. All you gotta do is kill me."

"Remember before when I said that I usually have a reason to kill someone," Justin asked.

"Yeah," Sig responded.

"Well," Justin said, and then suddenly threw his gun down onto the ground. "You were probably the best challenge I've ever had. No one who fights as good as you deserves to die because of a challenge like this. I think you and I would make a good team," Justin said, putting his hand out to Sig.

"You crazy," Sig said to him. "If you don't, Mr. Sandy will kill both of us!"

"BLASPHEMY!" Damas screamed. "One MUST destroy the other! Complete the test, or face worse pain!"

"You're gonna regret this, kid," Sig said, as Justin picked up his gun and put it back in it's holster.

"No, I won't," he replied, and put up a thumbs down if front of Damas.

"Grrr...SEIZE THEM IN THE NAME OF MR. FLUFFLES!!!" Damas yelled, as a bunch of guards came out to take Sig and Justin away.

"Who's Mr. Fluffles," Justin asked.

"Long story," Sig said, as the battalion of guards surrounded the two...

**Heh. I sometimes like to play around with Damas. He seems like a really fleible character. Review. Sorry if I sound bored.**


	12. Enemy Lines

**Well, after some long delays, here's Chapter 12.**

Chapter 12: Enemy Lines

Sig and Justin had arrived moments later at Damas's palace, ready to face the sand king's fateful wrath.

"How dare you two defile the purity of the arena," he spat, walking down the steps. "Sig, your time in Haven City has poisoned you, and YOU, newcomer, you deserve NO mercy," he continued, Justin raising an eyebrow at the fact that Sig had been in haven. "I should toss you both into the jaws of the desert! However, Sig, your years of service as our spy in Haven have allowed you a chance to redeem yourself, but only this once!"

"Spy," Justin whispered to Sig.

"Just shut up, I'll tell you later," Sig said back.

"There is a nest of metal heads in the desert not to far from here. They have been harassing our artifact carriers for some time. I want you to drive into the heart of the nest and destroy all of the eggs you find inside. I'd say good luck, but then luck won't help you," Damas finished.

"Before we leave," Justin asked.

"What," Damas asked sternly.

"Is Robin still with you, or..."

"I sent her back to your quarters. She has been told about the mission. She said to be careful," Damas said. "No more distractions. Go!"

"Yes sir," Justin said, and him and Sig soon left for the vehicle garage.

At the garage, Justin and Sig were trying to decide what vehicle to use.

"So, Sig, how do we get in," Justin asked.

"This," Sig said, climbing into a very large, heavily-armored gray and yellow vehicle win a machine gun on the back.

"Yeah, that should work," Justin said, climbing into the driver's seat.

"Nice, isn't it. Called the Gila Stomper. This thing's got some real good protection, and the gun here has an auto-lock feature that instantly locks onto an enemy. You man the gun, and I'll drive. I still don't trust you enough to let you drive this thing."

"As much as I'd like to differ, I won't. You look like the guy that you don't want to piss off."

"Good observation, boy. Now, let's go fry us some Metal Heads," Sig said, and took off for the nest.

As the Gila Stomper arrived at the nest, the two saw that the entrance was completely blocked by eggs. Sig climbed out momentarily, took aim with his peacemaker, and destroyed the eggs with one big blast. Justin's eyes widened slightly after that.

"Let's rock, cherry," Sig said, climbing back into the vehicle, gunning the gas.

As the vehicle made it's decent into the nest, the first thing that popped out where these crab-like Metal Heads that started jumping for the vehicle. Justin hit the fire buttons and the gun, as described, shot up each of the Metal Heads into a mess.

Before long, the two had found themselves in the heart of the nest. The first things they noticed were the green, organ-like things littered around the nest.

"Those must be the eggs we need to destroy," Justin announced.

"Get ready to start some serious shooting," Sig responded, as he drove up to the first egg. Justin peppered it with gun fire, and soon after in exploded in a greenish liquidy mess.

"Ew," Justin said.

"Just don't puke in the car," Sig said, driving to the next one.

After destroying five eggs, the two were still puzzled that there were 5 more showing up on the screen. Driving around more, Sig found a bunch of small eggs on a tall pillar. Justin shot them, and as the eggs exploded, the pillar collapsed to form a bridge to a tunnel. Sig drove through the tunnel and emerged in another room with five more eggs. Taking a path to the left, Sig began to drive over a bridge, when suddenly the weight from the Gila Stomper started making the bridge collapse.

Sig ordered Justin to begin shooting the egg up ahead immediately, as the two barely made it to the other side, the egg exploding. Four more eggs later, and the two began celebrating, when suddenly the cave began to turn green. Sig began coughing slightly, and then more profusely.

"Justin, poison gas! Here, take the wheel," Sig said, switching seats with the warrior. Justin gunned the gas and darted around, finding a similar egg-covered pillar, destroying it and crossing the bridge. He drove out, and back into the first spot, re-tracing their path and minutes later, out of the cave and into fresh air.

"You're still alive. And you destroyed the eggs. I suppose that mercy is in order, and, it is granted," Damas said over the radio. "You will not be cast out. But next time, I won't be so lenient. Never again defile the purity of the arena." And with that, he signed off.

"Well, we sure handed it to those Metal Heads," Sig said.

"Yeah, now, about "Mr. Fluffles"," Justin asked.

"Well, Damas said never to talk about it, but, well, it has something to do with one of his "prized possessions". Strangely, it's a stuffed animal that he's had since childhood and never would let go of it, until one day he got a bit delusional and began interrogating it, tied it to a chair and put a lamp over it. Well, long story short, he ended up destroying it in a fit of rage, and hasn't let go if that memory ever since. Now whenever someone mentions that name, he starts going into a nervous breakdown."

"That's real strange, even for a man in his 50's," Justin said.

"Yeah, well, just don't tell him I told you that, or mention it to him."

"Sure," Justin replied, driving through the front gate and into the garage. "Well, been nice chatting with you, chili pepper, but I gotta run. Stuff to do," Sig said, climbing out of the vehicle.

"Me too. I gotta go back to my quarters and make sure Robin's OK. She's probably having a fit right now," Justin responded. No sooner had he said that, when suddenly someone had tackled him to the ground. Justin looked up to see Robin death-gripping him, sobbing quietly.

"Uh..hi," he muttered. "Yes, I'm OK, now stop crying."

This then led to Robin going on and on for ten minutes about how she missed him and had been waiting at the garage for a long time.

"I know you're upset, but..." Justin was cut short of his speech when his com suddenly beeped. "Ugh, let go, I have to answer that," Justin grunted, trying to pry Robin off of him long enough to get the com out of his pocket. After trying for a few minutes, he finally had shoved her off of him, and pulled out the com.

"Yeah," he asked.

"Justin, it's Ashelin."

"Heh, Ashelin, good to hear from you. What are you up to these days?"

"I don't have time to talk. I just wanted to tell you to come meet me in the Oasis in the wasteland. I'll fill you in on the details later, when you get here. And bring Robin with you, too."

"You actually got away with sneaking your private Hellcat here? Surely Veger..."

"I had Torn keep him busy. He told him that I was going on a patrol," Ashelin responded.

"I highly doubt that the old man would've bought it," Justin said.

"Well, none the less, I'm here. Look, you need to get out here, I'm on an easily-traceable line, so anyone could be able to find me. Just get out here," Ashelin said, and hung up.

"OK. Robin, get up, we're going to go meet Ashelin out in the wasteland."

"What for," she asked.

"I don't know. She said she'd fill us in when we get there. Come on," Justin responded, and the two got into the sand shark and took off for the Oasis, which was marked on the map. Almost immediately, though, his radio beeped.

"What," he asked.

"Justin, where in the bloody hell are you going at this time of night," Kleiver asked. "I just got in here and found the Sand Shark gone. It's 8:00, no one is supposed to be out at this time unless it's been ordered by the King!"

"I have to meet someone in the Oasis. It's an old "accomplice" of you King's. Tell him Ashelin contacted me. He'll understand," Justin said.

"Alright, but I'm putting this on you if he doesn't buy it," Kleiver said, hanging up.

" Fatty's wondering where the hell we are," Justin said. Robin didn't responded. "You OK," he asked. She just muttered something.

"I'm just...thinking. About my first actual adventure in here. I was only four or five, my mom had sent me out to get some fresh water from the ocean. It was about a ten minute walk from the village down to the ocean. I was little, so I just began to let my mind wander and my imagination run wild. I began thinking about fighting all sorts of monsters, Metal Heads, whatever, and saving so may people. I snapped out of it when I almost walked right into the water and out into the deeper part. Luckily, I could swim, but not good enough as to where I could be by myself. I had taken more time than I was expected, but my parents let it go."

"Sounds interesting. When I fantasized, it usually led to something getting broken in the house, or it ended up with me in trouble for fighting with my little sister."

Robin just giggled at the thought. She leaned into her boyfriend slightly, and her eyelids began to drop.

"Whoa, don't fall asleep just yet, babe," Justin said. Robin just eyed him strangely. "Ah, what the hell, go ahead," he said.

Within about ten or 15 minutes Justin had gotten the Oasis in view, as well as Ashelin's large blue and yellow Hellcat. He pulled to a stop about ten feet away and got out, waking Robin up and almost dragging her through the soft, warm sand over to Ashelin.

"So, what's this all about," Justin asked.

"Well, for one, it's real nice to finally see you again. Second, although you still have weeks left before your sentence is over...I need you to come back to Haven."

"Well, first, thanks for the beacon. You were right," Justin responded.

"I knew Damas would find you. He doesn't miss much in this desert."

"How did you and your father know him in the first place?"

"It...doesn't matter now. Justin, listen, we need you to come back to Haven. We're loosing the fight badly. Veger's drunk on the power I gave him and he's taken full command of the FG and Haven City in general!"

"Don't worry, I'll...LOOK OUT!" Justin started, then screamed as he soon saw a bunch of marauders heading right towards them...

After a long fight with his vulcan fury and dark powers, the marauders had retreated.

"Torn said to give you this," Ashelin said, pulling out a strange-looking board. "It's a jet board. One of our former mechanics had made one of the first prototypes. We took that design and made some improvements."

"Thanks. And don't worry, I'll be back. And Robin's coming with me."

"That would really set Veger off the edge, since her sentence is supposed to be for life," Ashelin said.

"I don't care. I WANT to piss that guy off. I want him to know that neither me, Robin, you, Torn, or any of the FG soldiers are going to stand for him any longer. As soon as I get back, we're bringing the fight right to him."

"I see your attitude had changed quite drastically. And I like it. Let me be the first to say welcome back to the fight. And, before I forget, Pecker said to give you this," Ashelin continued, pulling out a strange tan amulet. "It's called the "Seal of Mar". He says that it may be of use to you in the near future."

"Thanks. I'll see you tomorrow," Justin said, as he and Robin left in the sand shark, back to Spargus, Justin's quarters, and finally to bed...

**Review.**


	13. Road to Haven City

**Yes, you are looking at the new chapter of FRTH. Sorry it took so long. Computer issues and whatnot. Well, now it's here, so I hope you enjoy it.**

Chapter 13: Road to Haven City

Justin woke up the next morning with one goal in mind: piss Veger off real bad. He slipped out of bed quietly, trying not to wake Robin, and went to take a quick shower. After he got out, he was about to wake her, when a voice entered his head.

"_**Hero,"**_it said. "_**It is time once again for you to come back to the temple for your next lesson."**_

"_Great, you again. Listen, can this wait? I've got some business to attend to."_

"_**I know of your 'business'. Let me say, though, that the only way that you can get back to the city is through the catacombs. And the only way to get to the catacombs is through the temple."**_

"_Are you just saying that, or are you being serious? And if it's true that it's there, how will I know how to get there?"_

"**_You will know. Trust me. I'll see you at the temple,"_** it said, and disappeared.

"Hey, babe," Justin yelled.

"What, I'm in the shower," she asked back.

"When you're done, get your stuff together and meet me at the race garage. We've got some things to do."

"I may be a while, but OK," she said back, and Justin left almost immediately.

As he was walking to the garage, though, he got a call on his com.

"Yeah?"

"Justin, it's Torn. I heard about what you're doing, and all I can say is I'm proud. Welcome back."

"Thanks. I should be back there within the day."

"Actually, there's another reason I called. The palace...was destroyed."

"What? What happened?"

"I don't know. My guess is Metal Heads. We were taking arial patrols, and next thing I knew, I heard a crunch, and looked to see the palace getting attacked. Next thing after, it went crumbling down. Weird thing is, after it destroyed the stadium, we saw something...odd."

"What?"

"We believe it's...crap, I gotta go. Veger's coming this way. See you later," Torn said, hanging up.

"Who was that," Robin asked, just arriving by Justin.

"Torn. The palace got destroyed by Metal Heads."

"That's...horrible."

"Yeah, but I never really liked that place. And he said they found something odd after it destroyed the stadium in the fall, but he had to cut short because Veger was heading towards him," Justin responded as the two entered the garage, seeing Kliever polishing up the vehicles.

"Hey, rook," he called to Justin as the two entered. "I told Damas what you said last night. You were right."

"How do Ashelin and Damas know each other?"

"I don't know. He said that he had been with her dad in Haven at the time of the first Metal Head war there."

"Really," Justin said. "Listen, we're gonna be gone for a little bit; heading back home."

"How're you gonna get back?"

"Catacombs."

"Those bloody things are a myth. No one's been able to find them out here, and I doubt even the monks up there know where it is, either. Besides, I thought your sentence wasn't done for another week? And the Lass's supposed to be out here for here lifetime?s"

"Getting out on good behavior," Justin joked. He saw Kliever chuckle slightly.

"Hm, riskin' your tail just to piss someone off. I like it. Whoever it is, I hope you get 'em real good," Kliever said as Justin loaded their stuff onto the Dune Hopper.

"Justin, I'm glad I found you," Damas said as he entered. "I need you to...what's going on here?"

"The rookie and his girl are goin' back to Haven," Kliever said.

"Really," Damas said. "How long will you be gone?"

"I don't know. Chances are that I may get killed by guards when I get there," Justin responded. "Remember, we're convicted criminals."

"Justin," Damas said. "Though I applaud your bravery, and can also vouch for the longings of my home, you must also understand that one of the things you've learned out here is respect. That being said, I can't force you to stay; but, I am going to say this: You are a very smart boy; but don't go getting into worse trouble that you are already in."

"I'm sure Veger won't mind," Justin said.

"He probably will. I've seen what he's done to those who stand against him."

"You hate him too," Justin asked.

"No, except that...he was the one that...well, never mind. I'll tell you when it's time. For now, I think you have a job to do."

Justin nodded, as he and Robin got strapped into the dune buggy.

"Good luck," Damas said.

"Hit 'em hard," Kliever joined.

Justin started the Dune hopper up, and was soon out the gates and into the desert.

"Well, here we go," he said to Robin.

"What did Damas mean by 'he was the one that'," Robin asked.

"I don't know. But if he's holding something back, I wanna know. For now, though, let's focus on what we're going to do when we get home."

The two had just arrived at the temple, where they saw none other than Seem roaming the halls.

"What are you doing here," Seem asked, her back turned to the two.

"Sightseeing," Justin responded.

"Not funny."

"Some sense of humor you have."

"We cannot afford to joke in these dire times."

"You can't, I actually enjoy it."

"Justin," Robin said in a surprised tone.

"Wait..." Seem said, turning around to see Robin.

"Seem," Robin squeaked, gripping her tightly. Seem grunted slightly in pain.

"Yes, it is...good to see you too," Seem responded.

"I'm lost," Justin said.

"We...went to school together," Seem said. "She was...one of my good friends."

"If I said she was my girlfriend, would that change your mind about me," Justin asked.

"Not really."

"As long as you're here," Justin responded as Robin released Seem. "I have a question. How do we get to the catacombs from here?"

Seem smiled slightly. "So you DO know some history. Well, I can't really tell you exactly, but let's just say you're pretty close."

"Thanks for the tip."

"Look for the seal of Mar. That will point you the right way. I must now return to my business. It was...good seeing you again, Robin."

"Byes," she said, as the two walked down the stairs, eventually coming to the room where the sentry bots were.

"Well, Ashelin said that I would need this to get somewhere," Justin said, pulling out the seal. "But I can't figure out how, or what it is that this needs to be used for."

"Maybe that's it," Robin said, pointing to a door that was in the shape of the seal. Justin held the seal up to the door, and like a key, it opened it.

"Now we're getting somewhere," Justin said. "Come on."

The two entered the door, and to a long hallway, before they came across a small room with about knee-high water, and lots of rails.

"**Greetings, great warrior,"** a voice said. "**The door before you is locked, and cannot be opened with a simple key. In order to advance, you must collect 30 bits of eco energy. Only then will the door open."**

"How am I supposed to do that," Justin asked.

"**You already have everything you need,"** it said, and disappeared.

"What's he mean by that," Robin asked. Justin thought about it for a moment, and looked around the room. He then realized what it was he needed.

"I got it. Stay here," Justin said, and pulled out the Jet-Board. He used it and went around collecting all of the energy bits, each one flying into the engraving above the door. Once all 30 were collected, the door opened, and the two went inside to find the same room that he had encountered the precursor idol before, only this time they were seeing a different one.

"**We meet again, great warrior,"** the idol spoke. "**But sadly, your coming may be too late. You'll soon meet the seed of our downfall. It approaches quickly, and I fear we may no longer have to power to resist."**

The same white light that had surrounded Justin before appeared again, as the idol continued.

"**Behold, the true power of light. We offer what little we have in this dire moment."**

The beam quickly faded, as did the idol's voice, leaving Justin and Robin alone again.

"So, what do we do from here," Robin asked.

"Good question," Justin answered, glancing around. There was no way he was going to re-trace his steps, and there wasn't any kind of warp gate anywhere.

He suddenly noticed what looked to be platforms spinning rapidly to his left, just above where he stood. They also lead up to a door. Something in his subconscious suddenly began telling him something: "_Use your new power."_

"You OK," Robin said, seeing that Justin was glaring into space a bit.

"I have an idea," Justin said. "Hold on to me."

"OK..." Robin responded nervously. She gripped him loosely, and Justin closed his eyes, as he floated above the ground slightly, and in a flash of light, appeared before Robin as a glowing blue figure.

"Oh...my god..." Robin muttered.

"Keep holding on," Justin responded, and in his hands formed two small balls of light eco. He knelt down, and with an upward sweep, smacked his hands together, and everything around him suddenly slowed down to a crawl.

"What the...what did you do?"

"I don't know, but let's get up those platforms before this wears off."

"Yeah, cause that looks like quite a way down," Robin responded, as her and Justin quickly jumped up the platforms. Just as he got to the door, the power wore off, though he was still in light mode.

The two walked a long hall before they were on the top of the room with the pitfalls and moving rails they had encountered their first time in the Temple. Justin looked beyond to see a quickly rotating fan thing, as well as another floor across the gap.

"Hold me again," Justin said. Robin grabbed onto him, as he froze time once again.

"Now what?"

"We run across. We can hopefully get there before it wears off. Just keep moving," Justin responded. The two ran across that one, as well as a second and third one, before finding another hallway. This lead up to a stone bridge, and on the other side was a door much like the one Justin had to use the seal to open.

"Well, looks like our way out is just over this bridge," Robin pointed out. "Let's go."

However, as Robin went to step on the bridge, Justin put his hand in front of her.

"Don't. There's something about this bridge that makes me feel uneasy. It looks really unstable."

"Use your time-slower thing just to be safe," Robin sort of both asked and suggested.

"Yeah, good idea," Justin said. Robin grabbed him as he once again slowed down time. Justin's instinct was right, because as they stepped on the bridge, there was a crumbling noise, as the bridge started to collapse. They both made a mad dash across the slowly collapsing bridge, Justin making it across first, Robin slowly behind.

She was just about to make it, when she suddenly tripped. She screamed loud enough for Justin to spin around and see her falling. He quickly reached out, grabbing her arm, just as he light freeze wore off, and the bridge finished collapsing. He slowly pulled her up, the two breathing hard after the scare.

"That was close," Robin said. There was a sudden flash, and Robin looked over to see that Justin was normal again. "Hey, you're not glowing."

"Light Eco must've ran out," Justin responded. He then pulled his seal out and opened the door. The two walked into what looked to be an elevator, taking it to the ground floor, revealing a lot of orange metal, as well as a yellow aircraft which appeared to be unused.

"These must be the catacombs," Justin pointed out.

"Oh, there you are," Pecker, who had just flown to the scene, said. "Oh, I'm so squawking happy I found you. Damas told me what you were doing, and I figure it's time for me to get back to my rightful place as Onin's interpreter."

"I think that craft may be our ride out," Robin said. "But it doesn't look to have any power."

Justin walked over to it and got inside. She was right; nothing. "It looks drivable, but I just need a way to start it."

"Maybe...the seal can be used on things other than doors," Pecker responded. Justin pulled the seal out again, and the craft bolted to life.

"You guys up for a ride?"

"You two...go on ahead," Pecker said. "I'll catch up."

"Sure? It'll be faster if you come with us," Justin asked, helping Robin into the craft.

"Well, I don't want to...you know...get in the way..." Pecker responded slowly.

"I'm gonna be too focused on driving to pay any attention to that," Justin said, getting in himself.

"Eh...well, what the hell," Pecker said, and got in.

"Hang on," Justin said, hitting a few buttons, and hearing some hissing, as the vehicle suddenly jumped.

"Well, here we go," Robin said as the craft picked up speed.

"I just hope that wherever this leads, it'll be right back to Haven City."

"They should," Pecker said. "The catacombs are pretty much the subway system of the planet."

"Why does everyone think they're a myth," Justin asked as the craft began its decent, picking up more speed.

"Because everyone thought that the catacombs were destroyed in hopes of covering the Precursors' tracks," Pecker responded. "Legend tells that long ago, possibly the beginning of the planet, the Precursors had been the sole inhabitants. The precursors soon developed themselves as a wealthy first society. But then within a few decades, the Metal Heads, or as they're otherwise called, the "Hora-Quan", became to appear on the planet. The Metal Heads became jealous of the Precursors' wealth and prosperity, and wanted it for themselves. Thus began what most Monks know as the "Precursian War". It still goes on to this day."

"So what about the catacombs," Justin asked.

"Well..." Pecker was about to say.

"Justin, look out," Robin yelled. Justin looked up to see that they were suddenly about to hit a bunch of tall cones placed around the tunnel, blocking the way.

"Damn it. Hold on guys," he called, but then two buttons on top of the steering stick flashed, and Justin pushed them, causing lasers to shoot out and destroy enough of the barrier for the craft to slip by.

"That was close," Robin said in relief.

"It's not over yet," Pecker said suddenly.

"What do you..." Justin said, but looked up enough to see a large hole in the tunnel. He quickly swerved away, but then had to dodge another gap in the tunnel.

"The precursors were smart," Pecker responded, as Justin had to also shoot out another set of barriers. "They built traps and pitfalls into the roads to keep enemies away from them."

"How did the precursors avoid their own traps," Justin asked, shooting what looked like a large column stretched down the middle of the tunnel enough to get by.

"Well, they..." Pecker was about to say again, but was interrupted by laser fire on the craft.

"The hell was that," Robin asked.

"Over there," Justin responded, pointing to a red square-like object.

"Defense bot," Pecker commented.

"Eat this," Justin said, firing a few lasers and destroying it. He was about to relax when...

"Crap."

"What," Robin asked.

"Big jump," Justin responded, pointing to the fact that just ahead of them were two parts of the tunnel separated by a large gap. "Hang on, guys," Justin responded as the vehicle picked up more speed and raced off the edge of the track, just barely getting on the other side.

"That was pretty close," Robin said, as the vehicle slowed down a bit. "Hey, a light up ahead. That must be the exit."

"Thank god," Justin responded. "Let's slow this thing down."

"Tell us more of the story, Pecker," Robin asked.

"During the war, The precursors knew that they needed to find a safer place for those that weren't at war to stay. So, they figured that the one place that the Metal Heads would never think to look would be at the center of the planet. So they began building roads, tunnels, sub-rails, anything as an underground city that the Metal heads were standing on all along, but never knew about. The soldiers would fight the war, and the rest would stay in the underground city."

"Why all the traps if they had to use the roads," Robin asked.

"They didn't build the traps..."

"Uh, guys," Justin said. "I can't find a brake."

"So..." Robin asked, as they could see the end of the tunnel up ahead.

"Be prepared to jump," Justin responded, as the three were un-strapped.

As the vehicle entered the hub, Justin and the gang made an immediate jump from the craft. It went forward into the wall, exploding on impact.

"Thank god that's over," Justin commented.

"**Great warrior,"** a voice said. Justin turned around to see a precursor entity floating near the three. "**You have done well in this quest so far. But you are still very unprepared for what lies ahead.**"

That same familiar beam surrounded Justin again.

"**Take this light power as a token of our gratitude for your survival and continuous support for our cause. It is, again, what little we have left to offer."**

It soon disappeared again, Justin seeing the elevator just ahead.

"Come on," he said. "We've still got a job to do."

**Again, sorry about the long wait.**


	14. The Eco Mines

Chapter 14: The Eco Mines

On the elevator ride up, Justin was a still curious about Pecker's story.

"So, why didn't the Precursors build the traps during the war," Justin asked.

"Some believed that the precursors had mysteriously vanished long ago, after the very first great war," Pecker began.

"If they vanished, then why do some folks think they're still alive," Justin asked.

"Many conspiracy theorists believe that the Precursors didn't actually vanish, but are holed up in their underground city, and have been there for many years. As the first war began to end, the Precursors were rumored to have begun covering their tracks, removing any trace of themselves from the planet, but leaving behind many buildings and ancient artifacts. They built the traps to keep Metal Heads and any, shall we say, "snoopers", from discovering their city."

"So, why could we survive when everyone else didn't," Robin asked.

"Theorists believe that only the true chosen ones can be allowed to venture to their sacred city. The seal of Mar is the sign of the chosen ones. It once belonged to a man who used to live here, but he left, and left the seal behind. I take it that having the seal makes them believe you're a chosen one," Pecker finished as the elevator came to a stop.

Upon exiting, and a few steep climbs, they soon found their way to a very strange facility.

"Where the hell are we now," Justin asked. "I've never seen this before."

"These are the old Eco Mines. When Mar built haven city, he drilled in these walls to get at the eco, and use it for everything, from the shield walls, to the power grid in the city, to even the zoomers you see around the city. Word is that he covered them up when the city was finished to prevent any loose entries into the city, and when the palace was destroyed, it must've opened them back up."

"Mar must've not gotten much sleep," Justin commented.

"Well, I'll go ahead of you guys to tell Onin we're back. If I were you, I'd watch your tail feathers around here. It's pretty spooky," Pecker finished, flying off.

"I'm with him, baby," Robin said. "Let's be careful."

"Yeah. Hey," Justin responded, pointing to the right. "That could be our way out of here; that gate."

"Maybe, but it looks pretty secure."

"Let's go see and find out," Justin responded. As they walked a metal walkway towards the door, Justin soon spotted a problem.

"What," Robin asked as he suddenly stopped.

"There's a bridge over there," Justin said, pointing to a large metal bridge. "But it's up."

"How do we get it down," Robin asked.

"I've got an idea," Justin responded, pulling out the grappling hook he'd used back in the volcano.

"Where'd you get that," Robin asked.

"I found it," Justin responded, shooting it at the bridge. However, it just bounced off the bridge once it hit it. He tried again, this time trying to grab the top of it and pull it down, but it couldn't get a grip.

"Now what?"

"I don't know," Justin responded, looking at it. He suddenly got another idea. He simply pulled out his blaster gun and shot the bridge, knocking it down.

"That works."

"I guess it does. Let's go investigate that door," Justin said.

After shooting down a couple more bridges, they came to the large door, and it was clear that they weren't going anywhere anytime soon.

"Well, that's gotta be at least a good three inches worth of metal there," Justin said. "And I don't see any kind of switch to open it."

"Maybe you could blast it open?"

"I don't have enough power in any of my weapons, and the standard C7 breachers we use at the FG aren't powerful enough to break through this. We'd need lots of explosives."

"What about pure force?"

"I don't think that..." Justin responded, when he suddenly spotted something near them.

"What?"

"Look over there. A tram rail. Maybe if we follow it it'll lead us to something useful."

"Could be. But how do we follow it?"

"Would you be OK here for a few minutes while I use my jet board to ride the rail?"

"I guess so," Robin said as Justin went to pull his jet board. As he was about to get on the rail, Robin spotted a problem. "WAIT!"

"What," Justin asked.

"Look over there," Robin responded, pointing to a section of the track. "The track's drawn up."

"Wow, thanks," Justin said. "I would've probably ran into that. If everything is drawn up, then this place has probably been abandoned for years."

"So now what," Robin asked as Justin looked down to see an opening in the cliff below. He looked over and saw a small lift, as well as another bridge down below.

"I go on foot," Justin responded. Robin walked over and peered down.

"You sure? It looks pretty bad down there."

"I'll be fine. I was OK when we split in the volcano, and I've been fine on all my solo missions. Just wait here and I'll radio you if I find anything."

"Be careful," Robin said, giving him a strong embrace.

"I will," Justin responded as Robin held him for about ten seconds before releasing him. Justin then walked down a few platforms before taking the lift down. As soon as the bridge was in sight, Justin shot it down, and as he waited at the end, he felt the lift sudden buckle beneath him.

Robin watched from the platform, scared, as Justin suddenly jumped from the lift, the lift itself creaking and then collapsing downwards. Justin smiled slightly and gave Robin a thumbs up to say that he was OK.

Justin followed the bridge inside the cave, and as soon as he was inside, Justin spotted a bunch of winged creatures and several smaller creatures ahead. He equipped the beam reflexor and fired a few shots into the pack, taking them all out.

Justin walked through the caves, admiring all the workmanship that Mar had done. He followed the path around a large crane and up a steep path to the right, following it around and to another section where he used the blaster to take out some Metal Heads.

Justin had to shoot down another bridge blocking the path, and took a second lift up to another path, eying a large stone carving of what looked like a robot of some sort, following the path up, taking out another Metal head. He passed two poles with conductor rings around them, going outside and taking out more winged creatures. He went right, jumping across to two platforms, and continued across the path to shoot and kill a few more Metal Heads.

Justin looked around to see the rail system leader farther into the cliffs. It was night, also, so it was going to get hard to see. Regardless of these facts, Justin had to press on. He followed a path up a metal platform and through another set of poles, down to another pack of Metal Heads. Justin got rid of them, and took a third lift down more, shooting down another bridge. He took out more creatures and MH's, coming to a precursor elevator much like the one in the temple. He took the elevator down farther into the mines, coming to a stop near a rock path.

As he rounded the corner, Justin spotted something interesting.

"Hey, a Light Eco vent," He said to himself. "Wonder what it's doing down here? I am pretty low..."

Justin then reached his hand into the beam, feeling the onrush of light eco into his body. After a minute or so, he felt the presence of the eco at full strength, meaning that he must've been fully charged.

As he walked out, he spotted another lift next to the vent. Justin took it down, taking out more creatures as he came to what appeared to be a giant hamster wheel. Justin thought about what this meant, when he saw that power lines ran from the wheel to some lights, and down into the ground.

"_That wheel must power the electricity down here,"_ he thought. He then suddenly heard a squeak noise, turning to see a large orange creature walking out of a pipe. Justin looked at the creature and then looked at the wheel. His mind then got an idea.

"Come here," Justin said, walking over to the animal. It suddenly whimpered and ran back into the pipe. The pipe was only just large enough for the animal to get in.

"Damn it," Justin said to himself. He then got another idea. He made a noise like he was walking away, but only hid behind the extrusion of the pipe. The animal poked its nose out, walking out. As soon as it was out and its back was turned, Justin leaped at it, wrestling it to the ground. He pinned it long enough to subdue the animal, as he picked it up and put it into the wheel.

"All those fights with my sister finally paid off," Justin said comically. He then whacked the animal a bit to get it running, turning the wheel and powering the lights.

There was another noise as Justin turned to see a few platforms extend from inside the ground over to the next path. Justin smiled as he took the platforms down to the path, taking it around a corner, leaping over separated piece of ground and back to yet another wheel. Justin took out some small creatures, and hid in the shadows as an animal poked its way out. As Justin was about to leap for it, he suddenly saw a second animal exit, as well.

"This is going to be a bit harder," Justin said to himself quietly. He then got yet another idea. He waited until one got up close to him, then with the butt of his gun, whacked it hard enough to knock it out. As the other animal approached to investigate, Justin did the same thing as he'd done before, wrestling it and subduing it. He laid it in the wheel and as it ran, it turned the wheel to generate electricity.

As more lights came on, a series of platforms suddenly rotated upwards and locked into place, forming some stairs. Justin climbed the platforms, taking out more creatures, following another rock path up zig-zagging until he came to yet another wheel, doing the same thing as before. When the electricity sparked, Justin suddenly heard drilling noises, looking up to see that the platforms were on top of moving drills.

Timing his jumps, Justin leaped onto each platform, and onto the next path, which lead to, yes, another wheel. This time, the wheel produced a set of rotating platforms. Justin rode one to another section of ground, and then rode the other to another area. There was a pipe, but no wheel. Justin pondered before seeing another zig-zagging path ahead lined with more small creatures. Justin figured since the animals were scared of the creatures, they wouldn't come out of the pipe.

Justin scoured the section, taking out all the creatures. Once they were all gone, he noticed that the wheel was this time at the top of the path. He couldn't carry one all the way up, since it was way too heavy. Justin's only option was to get the animals to come to him. And that meant making them angry.

He pondered this thought for a moment, before coming to the conclusion that in order to make them mad, he'd have to hurt them. Justin walked down the path, and without startling the animals, took out the scatter gun (the weakest gun he had), and shot them all. Needless to say, the animals weren't happy, as they suddenly began to chase him. His plan worked, and once at the top, he had to somehow trick one into falling into the wheel.

As the animals got up, Justin was waiting at the top, right in front of the wheel opening. As they got within inches, Justin suddenly hopped up onto the wheel, where one animal fell in, and the other two avoided it. He figured his work was done, but when the animal inside refused to run, leaping back out, Justin figured there was only one other option.

He switched back to the blaster and figured that he'd do what he did before, but it would be harder now that the animals were mad. He saw one try to come over, and he quickly whacked it hard with his gun, knocking it out. He did the same with another one. Then that same animal that he'd had in the wheel before was left. As Justin went to grab it, it suddenly leaped away. Justin tried for minutes to catch it, but it kept dodging him.

Justin then tried to fake it out, going to jump at it, but then stopping and trying to catch it off guard. He kept missing on those attempts too. He had one last idea left, though it involved putting himself at risk. He quickly switched back to the scatter gun and shot it again, the animal diving for him. Justin grabbed it and tried to wrestle it down, being bitten and clawed a few times in the process.

After a long struggle, Justin eventually won, putting the animal into the wheel. Justin also disposed of the other two ones also. He then spotted a crate in the corner, going over to it. Justin opened it, finding a first aid kit.

"Seems like I'm not the only one that had to deal with these things," Justin said, tending to himself.

After taking a few minutes to patch up his bite and claw marks, Justin continued up some platforms that had appeared, following them up to another path. However, before he took the path, he spotted something on a rock ahead of him. Walking over to investigate, he saw what looked to be leg armor; just like the ones he had on his arms. He grabbed them and slid them onto his legs, the armor fitting him just right.

Justin followed the path now up to a metal platform. He looked above to see the rail system end. Justin pulled out his com to radio Robin.

"Hello," Robin said, picking up.

"It's me. I found the end of the track."

"Great! Took you long enough, but awesome. So, what did you find?"

"Well," Justin began, taking a look around. He suddenly spotted a point of interest. "I found a small tram cart filled to the brim with explosives. If I can find a way to get it down there, we can probably blast our way in."

Justin walked over to a leaver and pulled it, a crane coming down and grabbing the cart, bringing it to a platform with a rail in it. The platform turned out to be an elevator, as Justin and the cart were lifted up.

"I'll see you there in a bit, babe," Justin said, hanging up.

As they reached the top, the cart suddenly began to descend down the rail. Justin was smiling until he found out that there was an open section of the rail just ahead. Justin pulled out his blaster and shot the circle under the rail in a moment of panic. It suddenly caused the rail section to drop, locking in place with the rail system. Justin sighed, but realized that there were probably more of these. Justin followed a twisting path of moving platforms, grind rails, etc., shooting every rail section down he could see. What made it even harder was that the cart was suddenly gaining speed.

As Justin shot the last rail, he spotted Robin in the distance. Even worse, she was standing right in front of the door, and right in the way of the cart, and it was approaching quickly.

"Robin, look out," Justin yelled as high as he could.

Robin didn't hear him, but as she turned her head, she saw him and waved. Justin pointed to the rail and as she looked, she saw the cart coming right for her. She quickly jumped out of the way, as the cart just barely missed her and smashed into the wall, blowing up and destroying the wall in the process.

"You OK," Justin asked as he rushed over to help her.

"Yeah, I think so," She said, getting to her feet. "Just a little shocked. But hey, it worked."

Justin peered behind the two to see the wall gone, and also seeing more rail, stopping at a cross-section.

"We're almost there," Justin said, leading Robin inside.

"All the paths are sealed," Robin pointed out. "Now what do we do?"

"I don't know," Justin said, and as soon as they stepped onto a platform, there was a shake, and the platform became an elevator, descending down to a dirt path.

"That was convenient," Justin commented, taking the path around to see a small bridge to a large piece of ground, three dead-end tracks with mine carts full of explosives barely hanging from the openings. Justin could also see a door ahead on the other side.

"There's our way out," Robin said, pointing to the door.

"And let's not waste any time using it," Justin responded. The two walked the bridge out onto the ground, hearing the door behind them suddenly close, the bridge collapsing.

"Looks like we can't go back that way," Justin said. After he had said that, there was a sudden chuckle, the two turning to see the door opening.

"My monks told me you would be coming through the precursor sub-rails."

Yes, it was indeed Veger. Justin's face turned to anger as Veger continued on.

"Magnificent, aren't they? The precursors used them to build the world, countless eons ago. Legend says that these rails lead deep into the core of the planet, where the precursors wait in their great underground city to bestow unimaginable powers upon the chosen ones. I will save the world with that power, just as Mar did."

"Yeah, you've done a great job so far," Justin said. "Letting the Metal Heads attack the palace."

"Oh, my dear boy, you couldn't be more mistaken," Veger responded quietly, but then his voice got a lot more stern. "We're on a time clock, you two. That light in the sky, do you know what it is? Our nightmare has found us and the end is coming! I needed quick access to the catacombs below the city, so I, well, attacked the palace myself. It'll be...our little secret."

"Well, you're full of surprises," Justin commented.

"AND YOUR FULL OF DARK ECO! You and your girl there are an abomination! Darkness reigns over all and I will be the one who destroys all shadows! You couldn't possibly...wait, what is that on your arm? And your leg?"

"Armor," Justin responded.

"That's ancient precursian armor! Where did you find it?"

"In the desert and then just here."

"That's armor that the great beings wore countless eons ago, and now you've tainted it! How dare you," Veger rambled. Justin was getting a little tired of being called 'tainted', and as Veger's back was turned, transformed into his light form.

"Hey Vulgar," Justin called.

"It's Veger," Veger corrected. "What do you...what!?"

"Tainted, huh," Justin responded.

"No...not...possible...you shouldn't be able to do such a thing!"

"So I guess the stories were right about me and that crystal."

"Errgh...Enough! You may have the pure gift, but you both are still a threat! We will start the cleansing of the world with your demise! Behold," Veger said, his staff glowing. "I now command the very power of the ancient ones!"

There was a sudden crunch, as a stone statue of a robot suddenly came to life.

"Justin, it's alive," Robin yelled. The robot suddenly flew in and grabbed Robin.

"JUSTIN! HELP ME!"

Unfortunately for her, the young soldier was unable to do anything, just stand and watch as the robot held her in its hand.

"And this time, the precursors will NOT have mercy on you," Veger called, exiting the area through the elevator door, leaving Justin to fight the precursor Robot.

The robot used a small laser on its arm to create a rock platform out from the side of the rock wall, putting robin on it. It sealed her with more rock walls, a ceiling, and some bars, making some kind of cage, and afterwards turned its attention to Justin.

It's first attack was to take a red laser and sweep it across the ground. Justin successfully dodged it, and dodged it two more times, before the robot shot out what looked to be a large, black and blue crab thing.

Justin pulled out the scatter gun and shot the crab. He believed he'd gotten rid of it, but suddenly the crab split into two small crabs. Justin shot those, but each one split in half again. Justin finally killed them, and as he did, the robot armed it's laser and shot at spots on the ground, the sections jutting out in different heights. As the platforms finished, Justin began hopping up them. However, the robot began to shoot missiles at Justin.

He suddenly spotted a few abandoned mine carts filled with explosives hanging just outside some tunnels. He got an idea; if he could loosen the carts, and possibly set them off, it might damage the robot. Whipping out the Vulcan Fury, which he hadn't used in a while, Justin leaped on top of one of the pillars and shot at one of the carts. It successfully fell out of the tunnel after a few hits, and right on top of the robot, blowing up. The robot disappeared for a bit, but then came back, a few dents here and there. Justin knew this would be the only way he'd be able to injure the thing.

After a few more rounds, Justin successfully defeated the robot. A couple pieces of machinery came flying off when the robot exploded, and landed in front of Justin. He ignored them, and then focused his attention on getting Robin down. He couldn't figure out a way up, so he'd have to get her down. The only question was how.

Justin looked over at the two scrap parts, and recognized one of them as the laser arm the robot was using. He picked it up and examined it, reading ancient precursian language, which was just scribbles to him. Justin poked it a few times before a hatch lifted up and a small control dial popped up. Justin had no idea what each mode was, since it too was labeled in precursian, so he experimented with the five choices.

The first one he picked ended up shooting out one of the crab things that he'd faced earlier. Luckily it was shot into the pit, and out of harm's way. The next button shot out a simple laser beam, blowing a small hole in the wall. He experimented with the other three before finally coming to the one he figured would get him out of this; a Terra form laser.

"Robin, I've got an idea," Justin yelled. He aimed the beam at the base of the platform Robin was on, and shot the laser, the ground beginning to form outwards. Justin moved it down in an angled form to a few feet away from him, where he linked it back with the ground. Justin then pulled his blaster out and shot at the bars up top, breaking them off.

"Slide down," Justin called up. Robin nodded and slowly slid herself down. Once she was on solid ground, Justin created a bridge to the exit from the edge of the ground.

"I wonder if Torn will let me keep this," Justin asked, as he spotted the other machine piece on the ground.

"Probably not, but you can still try and ask him. It could come in handy," Robin said, as Justin picked up the other piece. He saw a couple holes on the back of the plate, and got an idea. He slipped it onto the barrel of his vulcan fury, and with a quick load up, the item had three small spires pop out of it, and he had a new weapon.

"Ooo, sweet," Robin commented.

"Let's go topside and see what kind of trouble we can get into," Justin remarked wittily. Robin just shook her head slightly as the two headed for the exit.


	15. Aftershock

**No, you aren't dreaming, this is actually a new chapter of FRTH! I kinda lost interest in this story for a while, but now I decided to re-visit my longest-running Fanfic here. It's also conveniently been a while since I did some self-promotions, so gotta put out that my forum, the chatterbox, is still out there in the Jak and Daxter section. I also want to push anyone who is reading this to read my humor fic called "The New Random Adventures of Jak and Daxter". Alright, then, enough promoting, let's get on with this, shall we?**

Chapter 15: Aftershock

The elevator took Justin and Robin up from the mine chamber, and when the sound of fires burning entered the atmosphere, the two believed they were in the port; however, they were wrong, as they had ended up in the destroyed section of the city, where the old canals used to be.

"Wow," Robin said, amazed at all the destruction the collapsed palace had caused.

"Looks as bad as my old bedroom," Justin commented, pulling out his scatter gun in case there were any metal heads around. The two walked towards where they knew the new FG section of the city was, running into only a small amount of stingers before they reached the entrance.

"Well, we're back," Robin said. "I just hope we don't get shot at."

Justin went to walk to the opening, but stopped suddenly; not because he saw something, but because there was...something in the way.

"What's wrong," Robin asked.

"Force field; probably to keep the metal heads out of the city," Justin answered. "Or Veger knew we'd survive that robot. I don't know."

As Justin contemplated what to do, Robin suddenly said: "Hey, isn't that Carter patrolling over there?"

"Where," Justin asked. Sure enough, he spotted the sergeant headed towards the FG. "Carter, over here!"

Carter heard Justin's voice and looked over to the two behind the barrier. "Justin," he asked, surprised. Carter ran over to the two, stopping by the barrier. "What in the hell are you two doing here?"

"We broke into the city via the old sub-rails; and through the catacombs."

"They're real?"

"Oh, yeah, alive and kicking. And we also ran into Veger, also."

"Veger, huh?"

"He tried to get rid of us with a Precursor robot," Robin said. "Justin stopped it, though, and got a couple gun mods."

"Well, at least you're still alive; ugh, why does no one ever says these things to me! I swear, with the KG always on our ass and the Metal Heads attacking the palace..."

"The Metal Heads didn't attack the palace," Justin said. "Veger did it."

"Really? Why?"

"He's trying to get into the catacombs and find the old precursor city."

"Well, no surprise there. Sorry about the force field; Veger put it in so that the Metal Heads couldn't get into the city here."

"Well, what do we do then," Robin asked.

"Rumors are there's an old sewer route somewhere in there that goes to the port, but it's so full of Metal Heads..."

"I can handle them," Justin responded.

"I'm sure you can. Listen, man, I gotta go; word on the street is that the KG are preparing a full assault on the lines here, and we gotta..." Carter began, but his comlink went off suddenly. "Yeah...they what? SHIT...I'm on my way," Carter said. "KG broke through, Justin, I gotta get over there; I'll see you on the other side."

"Go get em," Justin said, as Carter ran off. "Well, let's go find that sewer entrance."

"Yay," Robin said unenthusiastically.

After a bit of searching they finally found the door to the sewer elevator. The familiar scent of raw sewage filled the air, as the elevator descended down, coming to a stop shortly after. The first thing they saw when coming out was an ambush by Strafers. Justin took them out with the Vulcan Fury, and afterward the two headed further down into the sewers via some grated platforms. Once there, they encountered an issue; the path they needed to take was on top of a ramp that neither of them could walk up.

"Now what," Robin asked.

"I got an idea," Justin replied, pulling out his Jetboard and built up some momentum. He then leaped up onto the walkway and dismounted, pulling Robin up shortly after. The two continued down the path, another door opening to show some smaller creatures up ahead. Justin used the scatter gun to get rid of them, and then realized that the two would need the Jetboard if they wanted to go anywhere.

"Get on," Justin said, positioning himself slightly off the center. Robin took the other side, and judging from her stance, she'd rode a Jetboard before.

"You.." Justin started.

"Yes, I have," Robin said. "Part of the initial training, though that was a long time ago."

"Well, this shouldn't be a problem," Justin commented. Indeed, it wasn't as Justin and Robin worked their way around the first part of the pipe, getting to the connector to take them to the next pipe, and taking the second connecter to another room full of the previous creatures, and also metal heads that Justin and Robin had never seen before.

"What the hell are those," Justin asked.

"I think I've heard them be called 'Saw Heads'," Robin responded. Justin pondered what to do next and had an idea. He equipped his new weapon the 'needle laser', as it said, and fired a test round. The fun thing was that it was a straight beam of blue electricity. Justin got an idea soon after, going back up to the previous connecter pipe. He helped Robin up, and shot a beam of electricity at the water. Sure enough, all the creatures unlucky enough to be standing in the water were zapped dead, as a door opened on top of a large incline, water rushing downward. Justin and Robin hopped on their Jetboard and rode the board up the incline, into the next room.

Justin soon spotted a high ledge underneath what seemed to be a fan of some sorts. He had Robin wait for him at the bottom while he hopped onto the Jetboard, riding towards it. As he touched the fan, it suddenly shot him up into the air. Justin rode the air blast up to the hidden room, where he found an old KG crate stashed towards the back of the room. When he opened it, he found something interesting: a gun mod. After equipping the mod, his gun had transformed into a brand new model. Justin read "Peace Maker" on the HUD of the morph-gun, and fired a test round. The gun fired a large ball of energy that hit a wall and shot tendrils of energy from it's center. This made the Freedom Soldier smile happily as he leaped back down to his waiting girlfriend.

"What did you find," Robin asked.

"New gun," Justin responded, showing her the Peace Maker.

"Ohh, cool," she responded, examining it. "Hey, hold on; doesn't that look like Sig's weapon to you? From when you fought him in the arena?"

"Oh yeah," Justin said, looking closer at it. True, it didn't look exactly like his, but the technology was the same. "Well, more firepower for us, then. Come on, let's get going."

"I think I see something up ahead," Robin said. Justin peered ahead to see what looked like a large gap between to waterfalls and a pipe that ran across the gap.

"Well, there's only one way across," Justin said. He and Robin got onto the board and rode the pipe, landing on the other side.

Almost immediately, though, three large fans at the end of the tunnel began to blow at them, the intense force of the air flow almost forcing them off the ledge. Justin quickly decided to try out his new peace maker again, shooting at the middle fan. After a couple shots, all three fans were destroyed. He also saw some strange fish in the water in the next tunnel, and used the blaster to take it out from a distance, the fish somehow exploding. Justin raised an eyebrow at this, but continued on to the new pathway, riding up an incline and using the board's pulse attack to take out another fish.

After riding up another incline to the left, the two made a hard right to avoid a drain, or whirlpool of some kind, in front of them, and taking a break on a platform ahead. They took a look at what they were going into next; a winding waterway of sorts that went down into a large area with several drains and more creatures. Justin spotted another series of pipes that spanned a gap between two waterfalls. Justin and Robin hopped back on the board, rode the river of sorts down to the bottom and used the Gyro Burster, a weapon Justin hadn't used before, to take out all the enemies without hassle. When the creatures were defeated, the pipe lowered and allowed Justin and Robin to grind it over to the other side.

The two followed another incline up and rode around another drain. However, when they turned the corner to the left, they found themselves face to face with yet another series of those fans from before. The fans pushed the two back seriously close to the suction of the drain, before Justin pulled out another unused weapon, the Plasmite RPG, and destroyed the fans with a few grenades. Justin was about to pull his board out again, when he heard something that sounded like a grunt. Justin told his girlfriend to be quiet as the two carefully waded against the wall to the right, following it until it stopped. Justin leaned forward slowly to look beyond the wall and spotted several Metal Heads beyond.

"What is it," Robin asked quietly.

"Metal Heads," Justin responded as quietly as he could. "And big ones, too; Juice Goons and Slingers. I learned about them in FL training."

"What do we do," Robin whispered.

"I wish I had Peace Maker ammo left, then I could take them out from here. But since I don't, I don't know."

"What about your invisibility power," Robin asked. "We could sneak our way around."

"No, we'd need an idol; and since Metal Heads are basically full of the stuff, they'd pick up on us." Justin kept contemplating what to do until he realized that he just had to go for it.

"Wait here," He said to Robin, peeking back behind the wall to make sure none of the Metal Heads were looking his way. Once the coast was clear, he quickly hopped onto his board and made a bee-line straight ahead towards where he could see another incline. Luckily for him none of the Metal Heads had seen him, as he made his way up the watery incline and onto the bridge section without problems.

Justin now had to contend with not only the two the Juice Goons on the bridge, but about three Slingers and more goons on the top of the waterfalls. He quickly took the two Goons out from a distance with the vulcan fury; this, however, alerted the other Metal Heads on the higher section of the room to his presence, as the Slingers began attacking the bridge. Justin ran as fast as he could towards the end of the bridge, rolling to make sure he wasn't hit by the eco bombs, making his way to the other end and another incline. Justin rode his way up, turning the corner and landing on that final section. He used a blaster/beam reflexor/vulcan fury combo to eliminate all the remaining Metal Heads. He went back for Robin and the two made their way back to the top of the room, exiting via a door once they turned to the right at the end of the waterfalls. After a quick use of the gyro burster to eliminate another pack of Straffers, Justin and Robin made their way across the bridges to the final exit door, riding the elevator back up to what they presumed would be the port.

(Meanwhile)

Carter and his forces had been able to hold off the impending KG attack and keep the fighting concentrated inside the slums. Although he had a post to maintain, he remembered something he made sure he'd do after he had some time to himself: let Torn and Ashelin know that Justin and Robin were back inside the city.

Ashelin was inside the command center at the FL headquarters going over some status reports when he door to the elevator opened. Ashelin saw Carter exit the elevator like he was in a hurry and rush over to her, panting.

"Carter, what are you doing here," She asked, slightly disappointed that he'd left his post. "You should be watching over your squad."

"I know, I know," Carter replied, catching his breath. "But listen, Ashelin, Justin's back; and Robin's with him, too!"

"W..what," Ashelin said, a slight smile appearing on his face. "When, how, what..."

"He said he went through the old precursor sub-rail system, and the abandoned eco mines. He also ran into Veger, who..."

"The rails exist," Ashelin asked.

"Yeah, according to him they do, but there's more; VEGER's the one who destroyed the palace, not the Metal Heads! Justin said he was looking for something inside the catacombs."

"Well, whatever it is, we'll just have to get to it before he does," Ashelin replied. "Thanks Carter, I'll let Torn know right away."

"Yeah, they should be getting to the port any time; they took the sewers inside the Metal Head city section."

"I'll have Torn keep an eye out for them," Ashelin said. "Now return to your post."

"Yes, Ma'am," Carter said, saluting her before taking off.

(Back in the Port)

As Justin and Robin entered the Port, they realized that the destruction of the palace has had a full impact on the city; one of the support towers had collapsed into the port, crushing buildings and cutting off the central entrance to the port. The two began walking towards the Naughty Ottsel from the elevator, surveying all the damage and the gloomy feeling it's left.

"Oh, man," Justin commented. "This place is a wreck."

"Well, at least there's no KG's or Metal Heads here," Robin added as they neared the Naughty Ottsel.

Inside, Torn was going over a map of the city, crossing off and scribbling out parts of the city that were either destroyed in the palace collapse or taken over by the Metal Heads or KG. He soon heard the door open, taking a quick glance over and not caring to see who it was. When he returned his attention to the map, though, he heard familiar voices talking behind him.

"Hey, isn't that Torn," Justin said as the two walked in.

"Yeah; hey Torn," Robin called, waving her hands. Torn glanced over again and saw the two, his eyes widening in surprise. He instantly dropped whatever he was doing and ran over to them with a confused look on his face.

"Justin? Robin? Never thought I'd see you again."

"I was pretty hopeful we would," Justin responded.

"Listen, guys, I'm sorry about Veger...we all are. We should've done more."

"Yeah, well we just saw him; he's trying to use Precursor technology to get into the catacombs," Robin said.

"Figures; the guy was always one monk short of a choir; but anyway, that's old news. Right now the KG and Metal Heads are at their strongest peak and we're trying our hardest to keep the fighting contained. The Metal Heads have a barrier put up at the access point to their section of the city, and we don't know what's going on in there, not to mention the increased activity with the KG. Word on the street is that they have a new leader now; but we don't know who, or what for that matter, it is yet."

"Well I'd be happy to take some of the workload of your hands," Justin said.

The alarm on the hologram table suddenly began blaring as a Blast Bot popped up on screen.

"Looks like you got your chance here," Torn said. "Scanners indicate a trio of bomb bots headed right for the Naughty Ottsel from the Industrial Section; if any of those reach the bar, it'll blow the place to pieces. Up for the challenge, Justin?"

"You bet," He said, restocking his ammo from the boxes inside the bar. "Robin, you'll be OK here while I take care of this, won't you?"

"Yep," She replied quickly.

"OK, guys, be right back," Justin said, exiting the bar.

From a distance, he could see that the bomb bots had been air-dropped onto three parts of the port. One was dropped right near the entrance to the Industrial Section, the second was dropped farther down onto the bridge, and the third was dropped onto the farthest end of the bridge, near the Metal Head section.

Justin equipped his newest weapon, the arc welder, and went for the farthest blast bot. After arriving on scene, he saw that the bot was tossing out small bombs just ahead of its path and stopping briefly, possibly using the bombs as a defensive weapon. Justin seized the moment, kicking the bombs back at the blast bot, and then getting underneath it as it walked away and hammering it with the arc. After a few seconds, the bot became too damaged to continue, beeping slowly at first, then rapidly. Justin knew to get out of the way, running towards the next bot as the one behind him self-destructed. Justin repeated the process on the last two bomb bots and got a congratulatory call from Torn, saying to come back to the bar so they can discuss the next plan of action.

As Justin entered the Naughty Ottsel, he saw Torn on the communicator with Ashelin.

"Ashelin! Ashelin, this is Torn! Justin and Robin are back in the city," Torn said as Ashelin's face came on the hologram display.

"I know; Carter told me," She said.

"Hey Ashelin," Justin said as he walked up to the table.

"Justin; I knew you'd show up," She responded.

"Oh, man, that KG leader's probably pissing..." Torn began, but then Ashelin's face began to flicker as another one tried to get into the picture. "Wait...someone's jamming the signal...I think..."

The face flickered on to reveal the same strange face Justin had seen from the wasteland.

"Errol," Torn said, shocked.

"I live! Heheh..." Errol said. "Still fighting for the weak link, eh Torn? Well, I've had a few...'enhancements' since we last saw each other."

"Errol, why is that name so familiar," Justin said as Errol looked over to see Justin standing around the table. The face narrowed its eyes at the sight of the same man that took down his Metal Head party.

"You..." Errol muttered slightly to himself.

"Wait, do you mean Errol, the ex Krimzon Guard commander? The one that died supposedly in the eco explosion at the stadium?"

"Yes, that is me," Errol responded. "But as you can see, I wasn't completely destroyed. As for you, dear boy, I haven't forgotten what you did to my Metal Head scouts in the wasteland. I'd love to meet you face to face..."

With that, Errol faded from the table as Ashelin regained her connection.

"What was he talking about," Torn asked Justin.

"Oh I took out a bunch of Metal Heads in the wasteland he was commanding," Justin responded.

"We'll deal with him when the time is right," Ashelin said. "Right now we have a Metal Head nest to break into. Rumors are they're experimenting with Dark Eco and don't want anyone snooping around."

"What about the sewer entrance from before," Justin said. "I got in there that way before, how about I do it again?"

"Well, there's only one problem with that," Torn said. "The KG have just installed some super-ranged sniper cannons along the upper walkways that have had our men pinned down for a few days. But if you can eliminate those, than you should have a clear path to the sewers."

"Well, after fighting large metal heads in the wasteland, I don't think a few measly turrets are going to be any trouble," Justin said confidently.

"Always up for a challenge, huh? Alright then, good luck," Torn said.

"Same here," Ashelin said. "Ashelin out."

"Robin, wait here for me, OK," Justin said. Robin nodded as Justin exited the bar and drove towards the industrial section.

As he arrived, he stopped briefly to take in the scene. The palace collapse cut off most of the industrial section's roads and destroyed numbers of buildings. KG bots were all over the place, the FL engaged in battle with them. Justin parked the zoomer near the ramp to the upper walkway where he could see that the first sniper cannon was appearing. Justin ran over to what seemed to be two large buttons on the walkway. He saw that there was also a cross hair showing up on the ground, meaning that the cannon was trying to lock onto him. Justin dodged the beams and slammed the buttons in, a generator soon rising from the ground. Justin quickly shot the generator with his blaster, destroying it and the cannon.

"Nice one, man," Torn said over the comlink. "Keep looking for more."

Justin continued along the path to the next cannon, this time seeing three buttons on the walkway instead of two. As the next cannon popped out, Justin once again dodged the incoming fire and hit the buttons, destroying the generator that rose out. Justin then had to contend with a four-button cannon and two three-button cannons at the end. After destroying the remaining cannons, he radioed in his victory to Torn.

"Nice job, Justin," Torn said over the com. "That'll help us maneuver better. Now get to the sewers and find out what's going on back there."

"On my way," Justin replied, driving to the entrance of the sewers and taking the elevator down to familiar territory.

**Sorry about the end I was in a hurry to update this thing. Review and I hope the next chapter doesn't take so long.**


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